EXTRANEURAL AND NEURAL ANOMALIES IN FRIEDREICH'S ATAXIA

Abstract

The presence of a spina bifida occulta in several members of a family in which Friedreich's ataxia was present led to a search for reports of other cases in which such an anomaly existed. The search was unsuccessful, but scattered here and there throughout the extensive literature on this disease were found covert references to other physical anomalies, which seemed to indicate that the occurrence of evidences of degeneration were by no means confined to the nervous system and were probably commonly present in practically all cases of Friedreich's disease. It seemed worth while, therefore, to collect these varied types of physical aberrations in order to emphasize their frequency, as well as to gather them into a cohesive whole. This, together with the significant observations in the cases which will be detailed, naturally led to a consideration of the problem of heredity in Friedreich's ataxia, so that the study of