Since Oppenheim1 has described and outlined the clinical picture of this disease, a number of subsequent observations by this author and others have broadened the clinical aspect, adding new features to those first described.
Some observations were made, in which not only the muscles of the extremities were involved but also those of the neck and back; and in a series of cases the flaccid pseudoparalysis involved not only the musculature of neck in addition to the more commonly affected extremities, but also that of the whole trunk simultaneously, so that with the exception of the diaphragm all muscles supplied by the spinal nerves appeared paralytic.
The assertion that the muscles supplied by the cranial nerves remain intact in this disease had to be modified as the result of additional observations. A certain degree of participation of the cranial nerves especially of the facialis is in a few histories