Some years ago I treated a child, aged 3 years, who suffered from a severe case of anorexia nervosa. She had reached a serious state of depletion and weakness from her self imposed starvation, refusing all food and regurgitating that fed to her by gavage. She finally accepted a banana, with the result that other food was taken in a more or less normal amount within forty-eight hours. There was a complete relapse when the banana was withheld, and food was taken normally only with bananas.This experiment was repeated to test the validity of the observation, always with the same result, until a time came when her appetite was normal whether bananas were included in the diet or not. The action was such as is attributed to a hormone. It was natural, therefore, to test bananas in a case of celiac disease where anorexia was a prominent symptom.Celiac disease is probably the most troublesome disturbance of nutrition of late infancy and early childhood. The consensus of opinion is that it is a functional disease characterized by inability to utilize properly carbohydrates and fats. To what extent the carbo¬ hydrate or the fat is at fault is not quite so clear. Herter,1 who studied these cases from a laboratory standpoint probably more carefully than any one else, found intolerance of carbohydrates to be the most impor¬ tant feature, resulting in the deprivation of the organism of the food¬ stuff on which it mainly depends for its caloric needs, and stated that : "In the severest forms of 'Infantilism' the total quantity of carbo¬ hydrates which can be tolerated may be very small, and it may be possible to supply in this form less than one-fifth of the calories required by the organism instead of nearly one-half as in health. The fats are, on the whole, better tolerated than the carbohydrates." The diffi¬ culty in treating these cases is proverbial, relapses even after marked temporary progress being the regular experience. Ten cases are reported here ; eight of the patients were clinically cured by the form of therapy described below. The two patients not treated died. TREATMENT

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The Hypertonic Infant is a definite clinical entity. It is characterized by hypertonicity of all the skeletal muscles, as shown by the ability to raise the head and grasp objects even in the early days of life, and by general spasticity. The hollow viscera show increased activity of their smooth muscle fibers. This expresses itself in the form of spasm involving practically every part of the digestive tube, and, depending on the region, presents the symptom of colic, visible peristalsis, vomiting, constipation, or any combination of these. Accompanying these symptoms is marked psychic irritability, expressed by insomnia, general restlessness and crying. The hypertonic infant belongs to the spasmophilic group and presents the symptoms of Vagotonia.1 Its recognition is of importance in this, that while presenting symptoms in the main of disturbances of nutrition, food regulation alone does not correct the fault, whereas treatment by the drug atropin is followed by rapid subsidence of symptoms, the results being so prompt and regular as to constitute specific action. The tolerance for milk which is usually low in these infants is at once materially increased, so that a normal amount may be utilized-a condition quite opposed to that existing before the atropin was begun. In the teaching of infant feeding stress has been laid on two fac¬ tors : the food and the infant. The food has been studied from many angles, with the result that there is available an ample and satisfactory variety adaptable to most cases.The infant, too, has been studied from many angles; but few seri¬ ous attempts have been made to study the possibility of altering the infant's reaction toward food, when it is found impossible to adapt the food to it, despite the fact that idiosyncrasies have been noted and differentiated. Personal experience during the last few years has con¬ vinced me that in this direction lies a field which is full of promise in that ever diminishing group of difficult feeding cases. This paper deals with only one phase of the problem and will confine itself to the

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