At the Neurological Society of Paris a case was shown by Babinski[56] of left spasmodic torticollis, with marked spasms of the left arm and left leg, and a homolateral extensor response, and it was contended that if one and the same cause underlay these phenomena--nor did there appear any adequate reason to doubt it--and if the reversal of the plantar reflex was, conformably to received opinion, to be interpreted as indicating a derangement in the function of the pyramidal system, then it was allowable to attribute the muscular spasms to the same derangement, in which circumstances the natural conclusion was that spasmodic torticollis itself might sometimes at least be dependent on pyramidal irritation of an as yet undetermined kind. More recently still, another patient was exhibited by the same observer,[57] in whom the association of head rotation and convulsions of the arm on the left, with increase of the triceps reflex, was conceivably the outcome of pathological stimulation of the pyramidal tract. Yet the symptoms in each of these cases were curiously analogous to what we find in mental torticollis, in which abnormalities of the reflexes are conspicuous by their absence. We ought not on that account to reject the hypothesis of concurrent organic disease, inasmuch as a structural modification may be no longer the cause but the consequence of inordinate repetition of a motor reaction. Muscular hypertrophy or atrophy may be the sequel to tics born of ideas that find motor expression, and circulatory and even cellular changes may ensue on gesticulatory excess. The objective signs that reveal the existence of a point of irritation, on the presence of which the diagnosis of spasm depends, are commonly so trivial as to be wellnigh valueless, and should they be awanting, the motor disturbance appears to be purely functional, and may be considered a tic. At the same time we must admit the possibility of mixed forms, where the functional element is linked with primary or secondary organic disease, and perhaps their occurrence is more general than is ordinarily imagined. We repeat, however, that rigorous and lengthy investigation alike of the psychical and the somatic phases of the condition, embracing the state of the reflexes, will usually furnish sufficient information to facilitate the question of diagnosis and justify a positive statement. ELECTRICAL REACTIONS