Summary

The history of the concept “cerebral palsy” is reviewed. From the world of art, a spastic hemiplegic has been represented in the painting “Le piedbot” by Ribkra. In literature, the theme occurs in Shakespeare’s play “King Richard the Third”. Andry, Cazouvielh, Jorg, Heine and Delpech are among the names of earlier investigators. The first collected account of cerebral palsy is that by W. J. Little, M. D. Little’s studies are described, as well as those of Hammond, Gowers, Weyhe, Henoch, Sachs and Peterson. Freud’s study, “Die infantile Cerebrallahmung”, is discussed in detail. Finally, investigations by Foerster, Vogt, Silfverskiold, Rydberg and Phelps are mentioned.