A CASE OF UNILATERAL CEREBELLAR AGENESIA 
OLIVER S. STRONG 
Anatomical Laboratory, Columbia University 
TWENTY FIGURES 
The brain in this case came into the hands of the writer in the 
course of collecting some brains for anatomical purposes. The 
clinical symptoms were not thoroughly studied and recorded, 
but the following details were procured some time after from the 
physician in charge in reply to a letter of inquiry by Prof. M. 
Allen Starr. 
The child, a girl, was 3 years, 4 months, 16 days old. She was a 
small child, her head was small and she was very weak and unsteady 
in all her movements. She sat up all day in a high-backed chair. She 
could walk, but with a very uncertain gait, staggering to one side (which 
side not noted) and with a tendency to hold fast to chairs, ete., in get- 
ting about. She was unsteady in grasping a proffered object. She 
could move her head but the movements were slow. No paralysis 
was noted. She had marked bilateral nystagmus, exact type not 
noted. Whether she was deaf in either ear was not noted. She was 
very weak mentally, appeared very dull, took little interest in toys, ete. 
She talked poorly and indistinctly, with scarcely any formed sentences. 
No convulsions nor spasms were noted, nor vomiting except during 
her last illness. It was not possible to be sure whether she had head- 
ache, but for many weeks after admission to the institution of which 
she was an inmate she cried almost constantly and rolled her head from 
side to side. After this crying ceased she almost continuously during 
the day hummed, without words, a few tunes, one popular air of the 
time especially. This humming was so marked, so continuous during 
the day, as to be a ‘ward joke’—and accompanying the music, a never 
ceasing rotation of the head from side to side, usually in time with the 
music, and eventually resulting in depriving the back of the head of 
hair. Death was due to measles and broncho-pneumonia. 
The brain was fixed in situ by intravascular injection with 
formalin not long after death and was consequently n excellent 
condition both as regards histological fixation and freedom from 
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THE JOURNAL OF COMPARATIVE NEUROLOGY, VOL. 25, NO. 4 
