The reproductive histories of mothers of patients suffering from congenital diplegia.

The aetiology of congenital cerebral diplegia has been controversial since the earliest medical interest in the condition. Some authors have considered birth injury to be directly causal in the majority of patients (Little, 1862; McNutt, 1885; Gowers, 1888). Others have postulated the existence of some underlying intrinsic abnormality of maternal reproductive capacity causing both disorders of parturition and abnormalities of the foetus (Freud, 1897; Collier, 1899; 1923). Penrose (1938) suggested that diplegia with mental defect might be the result of a Mendelian recessive gene which could also be manifest as true microcephaly without diplegia. The present study describes investigations into the reproductive histories of mothers in two series of diplegic patients, which aimed at discovering whether their reproductive capacity was impaired or not.