ances of nerve-function and that it may sometimes be arrested by the application of the galvanic current. It may be pre ceded by pain in the muscles only or may occur as a sequel to infectious fevers: ty phoid, influenza, etc. .A.s a rule, many muscles enlarge simultaneously. In a case witnessed by Fulda the majority of the muscles were hypertrophied, and deglutition was rendered very difficult. None of the muscles of the body showed any trace of atrophy in a case studied by Pal.
ETIOLOGY.—The nature and causes of this affection are obscure. Lesage con sidered it as due to a deposition of fat Symptorns.—Slight fever, redness of the skin over the muscles of the neck and back, and swelling of the latter con stitute the first manifestations usually noted. After some time, a period of ap parent improvement, the muscles become increasingly harder to the touch: the first indications of the ossifying process, which progresses very slolvly. l'he cal cification is such sometimes as to trans form the majority of the muscles int() bone-like masses of extreme hardness. The total loss of contractility thus en gendered naturally gives rise to pseudo ankylosis, the subject being reduced, as regards motion, to the condition of stone: • of 11111:411111S. 0111): •"'S I • Ilet. 11 ri.COrded SO far.
1 . I - .1- it I..1114 to attack children - •.• • and is not steadily pro s‘t, Ll LI) ill tits and starts, • ' associated with con - :t }.1.11 and tlit• appearance of a •t tht. substance of some inns tbin;ni,ln s in size after a time, ItaNt, thind it a tumor of bony nty. During the attack there is r vcr. And possibly also local gland 1.1.7 ni:rzcment.
oi gt.mralized inyositis ossifleans, 1 i h began at the age of 19, involving at first the \thole of the right side. Tumtfactions occurred in the regions of ti e musics attacked. In the spring of evtry year the swelling extended to the it side. Considered as, an affection of e ln.nes secondarily involving the mu. b.. Virehow (Berl. klin. Woch., Aug,. (I, '94 .
Dtath frequtntly occurs as the result f rulnitnary disorders or of suppura t,-n %kith septic absorption.
Etiology.—Local injury giving rise to 1..y•-itis is thought to be the primary fa .trr in many cascs, especially when the pre,ents a congenital predisposi Hn to the formation of bone in inflamed vr;:. It is closely allied to rheumatism,
an+i sometimcs found in subjects show ungenital malformations, especially m.lax valgns and microdactylia (Ston 1-..m of progressive ossifying myositis (1.,rve I in a girl of 4 years. The left sterm)-eleido-masteiden. had undergone transkrniation and was removed, 1. it s( en afterward new osseous deposits f. rtred. Studsgaard (Satellite of the Anr ual. Mar., '02 C :az° r f my( sitis ossificans in a boy 9 yrars (1(1. TIIP bones were, for the most I art. I ypertrophied and irregularly ferrred. The ease showed an association hallux valgus and microdactylia. Welden Carter ( Lancet, Feb. 10, '941 Study cf a br,ny growth which had been removed from the deltoid. To the naked eye the tumor looked like a, fibroma, although there were scattered through it several reddish areas due to a persistence of normal muscular fibres. Microscopically it was tound that there was an abundant infiltration of the con nective tissues with round cells, while here and there cartilaginous nodules appeared, and throughout the newly formed tissue hony material was de posited; the muscular substance proper was simply atrophied, and in no way involved actively in the process. Lexer (Langenbeck's Arch., B. 50, H. 1, '97).
Case of myositis ossificans in a girl 4 years of age. The child was healthy to the age of two years, when the right shoulder began to get stiff, then the neck and the back were attacked, and two years later the disease had progressed so far that she was not able to dress herself or to rise hen in a recumbent position. Neither hereditary disposition nor infection was proved. Large portions of the muscles of the neck and back are ossified, forming a cuirass by m hieh the seapulm are fixed; osseous bands and prominences are felt on the back, on the front of the thorax, and in the muscles of the arms. In both feet the hallux is shorter than normally and deviated into valgus position. This deformity has, in all cases observed, been found to coin cide with the myositis ossificans. Nico laysen (Norsk Mag. f. Laegevidensk., p. 498, '99; Report of E. Leyison, Corr. Ed.).