Of the children who were vomiting food more than once daily 57.7% stopped vomiting within a few days after the treatment, and in another 20% vomiting was relieved.Decompression treatment is usually unsuccessful at a stage of the disease earlier than two and a half weeks and is harmful to the acutely ill case with pyrexia, cyanosis, or appreciable atelectasis.The results reported are based on careful selection of cases and combined assessment by parents and doctors. An adequate controlled experiment has not yetbeen done but should be attempted when opportunity offers.The mechanism of the action of decompression in whooping-cough has not been elucidated. Further trials should preferably include biochemical studies. Though cerebral infestation with the larval stage of the Taenia solium has been recognized since the middle of the last century, it was after the extensive work of MacArthur (1934), Dixon and Smithers (1934), Brailsford (1941), andDixon and Hargreaves (1944) that cysticercosis was given an important place among the conditions causing epilepsy. So well known is this that the diagnosis is unlikely to escape consideration in a patient suffering convul6ions who has lived or served in India or the Far East.It is the purpose of this paper to emphasize the clinical manifestations of this disease, other than epileptic convulsions, which, though both important and common, have received scant attention in this country. At the same time it will be seen that India and the Far East are not the only, nor even the main, areas where the condition may easily be acquired. Brief illustrative case histories are given, grouped under appropriate subheadings, but, as will be evident, the same patient may show several different features.
Periods of Disordered BehaviourThis group includes a wide variety of abnormal manifestations, unassociated with any true convulsion, but occurring during periods of disturbed consciousness, accompanied sometimes by involuntary micturition, and often consisting of bizarre or violent behaviour. -Case 1.-A Polish male aged 41 was examined on May 28, 1954 Since 1945 he had been subject to frequent attacks of violent behaviour, lasting three to five minutes, accompanied occasionally by involuntary micturition, stopping suddenly, and followed by several hours' deep sleep. The day before examination he had, without warning or provocation, attacked a friend with a chair, resisted the restraint of five men, and then suddenly passed into a deep sleep, having no memory of the incident on waking. Physical examination was negative, but a white blood count showed an eosinophilia of 800 to 950 per c.mm. Skull x-ray films were normal, but x-ray films of the thigh muscles sh,owed typical calcified cysticerci. The attacks were greatly improved by the use of primidone.Case 2.-This patient, a Polish boy aged 11, was born in Austria and had lived five years in the Ukraine. Since early 1954 he had been subject to attacks, usually during breakfast, in which he would make grimacing movements of the face for one minu...