CHOREA (Gr. chorein,a dancing or jumping), a disease popularly called St. Vitus's dance, and consisting of a tendency to involuntary and irregular muscular contractions of the limbs and face, the mind and the functions of the brain generally being quite unaffected. The spasms of C. differ from those of most other convulsive affections in being unac companied either by pain or by rigidity; being, in fact, momentary jerking movements, indicating rather a want of control of the will overthe muscles, than any real excess of their contractions. In some cases, the disease resembles merely an exaggeration of the restlessness and "fidgetiness" common among children; in others, it goes so far as to be a very serious malady, and may even threaten life. Fatal cases, however, are fortu nately very rare, and in the large majority of instances the disease yields readily to treatment carefully pursued, or disappears spontaneously as the patient grows up. C.
is a disease much more common among children of 6 years old, and upwards, than at any other period of life; it is also more common among female children than among males. The treatment generally pursued is the use of metallic tonics, such as zinc, copper, iron, and arsenic (the last, perhaps, the best), sometimes preceded or accompa nied by purgatives. Exercise in the open air is also to be recommended; and gymnas tics afford material aid in the cure. It is to be observed that the name St. Vitus's dance (dance of St. Welt) was applied originally in Germany to a different form of disease from that above referred to—one closely approaching in its characters the epidemic "dancing mania," which, in Italy, was called tarantism (q.v.).