Scattered references to emotional shock acting as a possible exciting cause of tics, as at times of obsessions, can be found in the literature. Dupre[2] has made such reference. Meige and. Feindel[3] themselves make the statement that "Fear may elicit a movement of defense, to persist as a tic after the exciting cause has vanished." They also state that "in ticquers the impulse to seek a sensation is common and also to repeat to excess a functional act." [2] Soc. de Neur. de Paris, April 18, 1901, quoted by Meige and Feindel, page 54, of the English translation (reference 1). [3] Loc. cit., p. 62. Bresler[4] has called attention to the fact that the movements are in the nature of defensive and protective movements of expression and mimicry and originally in reaction to some external irritant or as the result of some idea, and he proposed the name "mimische Krampfneurose" for them. This is somewhat allied to Breuer and Freud's theory of hysteria. [4] Quoted by Meige and Feindel, Loc. cit., p. 267. The object of tic is some imaginary end, the influence of the will always being present in the beginning, although later it may be absent. Tics are of cortical origin, being coordinated and synergic, clonic or at times tonic[*] muscular movements, physiologically and not anatomically grouped, premeditated, purposive, of abnormal intensity, apparently causeless and inopportune. [*] Cruchet objects to calling these tonic reactions tics. Insufficiency of inhibition is the cause of the beginning and of the persistence of bad habits and of tics. Tic is a sign of degeneration, in the biological and evolutionary sense, a degenerative neuropathic and psychopathic basis, as mentioned previously, being present, although often latent. The maladie des tics is but the extreme form. The onset is as a rule insidious, with a tendency to spread. Spontaneous cures may occur, while Gilles de la Tourette's disease is but the extreme form of a condition in which antagonistic gestures are frequently adopted by the patient to adapt himself and to get to a state of rest. This, as I see the situation, is as far as the French students of this subject (including Brissaud, Meige and Feindel, and even Janet) have permitted themselves to go. And, in my opinion, their observations and conclusions seem to be quite accurate. VIEWS OF THE FREUDIAN SCHOOL