HEAD SHAKING WITH NYSTAGMUS IN INFANTS

Abstract

Nomenclature.\p=m-\Variousnames have been given to this condition.Those which include the word spasm, such as spasmus nutans, nutatio capitis spastica, gyrospasm, nodding spasm, are objectionable, because it is not a spasm in the sense in which that term is usually used.The terms gyrospasm, rotatory spasm, head nodding and nodding spasm are inaccurate, because the movements may be in any direction.The term spasmus nutans has sometimes led to confusion with the condition known as eclampsia or epilepsia nutans, which is an entirely different disease.Salaam tic, a term sometimes used by French authors, is objectionable because this condition has none of the char- acteristic features of a tic.Everything considered, head shaking with nystagmus, seems to be the least objectionable name.Historical.\p=m-\Thiscondition was first described by Ebert1 in 1850, and in 1851 by Romberg and Henoch.2In 1890 Hadden3 published two important papers, with a report of twenty-one cases.Caill\l=e'\4 of New York was the first to note that when the nystagmatic eye or eyes were bandaged, the movements of the head ceased.In 1897 Raudnitz5 published his exhaustive monograph on the subject, based on fifteen cases, in which he particularly emphasized the importance of the dark room in the etiology of this condition.In 1911 he published a report on the production of this condition experimentally in young dogs.In England and Scotland, Still6 and Thomson7 have reported large series of cases.In this country Peterson,8 Aldrich,9 Abt,10 Judson,11 Miller,12 Hamill and Posey,13 Hill14 and others have published cases.