Dr. David L. Edsall, of Philadelphia, has recently described1 a group of cases characterized clinically by violent muscular spasms and excessive irritability of the muscles. Dr. Edsall says:
These patients presented none of the conditions ordinarily recognized as due to heat; there were, indeed, no symptoms of any moment, aside from the extremely striking muscular disturbance. The muscular spasms, however, were of a remarkable character, and in some of their details they appeared to be sufficient to distinguish the cases from other conditions of spasm that are recognized whatever their cause.
One of the most striking features was a very conspicuous degree of fibrillary contraction, particularly in the muscles of the calf. This was of continuous occurrence, except during the frequent interruptions caused by the most marked of all symptoms, namely, severe tonic spasms.
Without going into further detail Dr. Edsall mentions, in this report, which he calls a