Congenital Facial Paralysis

LITERATURE ON THE SUBJECT The significance of cases of congenital facial paralysis is still a question of considerable interest. For the last fifty years clinical observations with scanty pathologic reports have been recorded. Anatomists, even such as Piersol,1who discusses anomalies under "Practical Considerations," do not mention congenital facial paralysis. This is true to a less extent of pathologists. Some of them do not mention congenital facial paralysis (Adami and Nicholls,2Bruning and Schwalbe,3Monakow4). Others simply state that in gross maldevelopments of the brain the cranial nerves also suffer (Ernst5); while others admit and discuss the possibility of congenital facial paralysis with reservations; for instance, Ballantyne,6writing as follows: "Sometimes, as in a case about which I was consulted by Dr. Dickson of Lochgelly, 1899, the long persistence of the paralytic condition throws doubt upon the peripheral nature and traumatic origin of the palsy. Under these circumstances, it is