NEUROMYELO-ENCEPHALITIS DURING AND FOLLOWING AN EPIDEMIC OF HICCUP

Abstract

During the autumn and early winter of 1924, there occurred in various parts of the United States and Canada, in conjunction with relatively mild infections of the respiratory tract, an unprecedented number of cases of persistent hiccup, and cases of nausea and vomiting with or without hiccup, and of neuritis associated with or without myelitis and encephalitis. Cadham¹ describes such an epidemic in Winnipeg. Habermaas² reports the occurrence of a large number of cases in St. Louis. Rochester and the surrounding community had a similar outbreak. Boyd³ mentions the occurrence, during the epidemic of encephalitis in Winnipeg in 1923, of hyperesthesia of the head, arms and body in nonencephalitic persons who were definitely ill and in persons who appeared to be well. Opportunities to observe the course of epidemic infections are especially good in rural and small urban communities. I have observed and had accounts of epidemics