History. —During December, 1925, a youth, aged 18, was admitted to the Toronto General Hospital. His legs were almost completely paralyzed, and there was a marked curvature of the spine. After a careful study and consideration of the history and roentgenograms it was believed that the spinal curvature was not of tuberculous origin. The case immediately attracted special interest, since no one on the surgical staffs of either the General or the Sick Children's Hospitals could recall having seen a case of paraplegia due to congenital scoliosis. A case reported by Sachs encouraged us in our opinion that the paralysis was caused directly by the deformity of the spinal canal, and not by some separate pathologic process, such as a tumor. The patient said that apparently his back was straight until he was 7 or 8 years of age, when his mother first noticed a slight curvature. At the age