This is an excellent clinical study of twelve children, ranging in age from five to fourteen years, who developed severe emotional disturbances following mild upper respiratory infections. Despite the low fever, each case was characterized by the presence of a 'quasi-delirium' marked by apprehension, tension, lability in mood, and motor restlessness. This lasted one or two days. It was followed by a period of anxiety and mild depression which within a month was replaced by the characteristic feature of the illness, an obsessive compulsive state which lasted about six months. All the children recovered by the end of nine months. The ultimate personality status of these patients was considered better after recovery than before the illness.

As a group the children were of the inhibited type, the 'good child' doted upon by certain types of parents and teachers. They were characterized by