HYSTERICAL APHONIA, OR PARALYSIS OF THE LATERAL CRICOARYTENOID MUSCLES.Read in the Section of Laryngology and Otology at the Forty-first Annual Meeting of the American Medical Association, Nashville, Tenn., May, 1890.

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One of the most interesting manifestations of the group of symptoms which make up what is termed hysteria, is paralysis of the adductor muscles of the vocal cords. It is a singular fact in accordance with what might be termed a conservative law of pathological selection, that in nerve trunks not larger than a small knitting needle, in this disease only those fibres are involved which supply the adductor muscles, while adjoining fibres supplying the abductor muscles are not implicated. This is peculiarly fortunate, for otherwise this merely annoying affection would often become a fatal malady. This affection usually occurs in young women, but is sometimes observed later in life and has been met with even in children. Although termed hysterical, cases are not very infrequent among men. As the name implies, the disease is usually associated with some form of hysteria, but it sometimes