Introduction The purpose of this paper was to review the course of dermatomyositis in 19 adolescents and children seen at the University of Michigan Hospital between 1935 and 1955. The effects of corticotropin (ACTH) and cortisone therapy were assessed. Several previously unemphasized clinical aspects were noted and the pathological picture assayed. Review Dermatomyositis is a disease of infrequent occurrence characterized by insidious onset, nonsuppurative inflammation of striated muscles, and death in about one-half of the cases. Although several hundred case reports of this disease have been published since dermatomyositis was described by Wagner, in 1863, most reports are of only one or a few cases. Reviews of the literature have been accomplished by several authors,* including Karelitz and Welt,1 in 1932; Stuckey,2 in 1935; Keller,3 in 1936, and most completely by Schuermann,4 who in 1939 reviewed 263 case reports among which were 47 children. Selander,5