This may be defined as an affection occurring in young infants characterized by forcible vomiting, constipation, visible peristalsis and frequently a palpable tumor at the situation of the pylorus produced by a marked increase in its muscle fibers. The disease has been described under the names "Hypertrophic Pyloric Stenosis in Infants," "Congenital Spastic Stenosis," "Congenital Pyloric Stenosis," and "Spastic Hypertrophic Pyloric Contracture."
Osler discovered a typical description of this disease written by Dr. Hezekiah Beardsley in a volume entitled "Cases and Observations by the Medical Society of New Haven County in the State of Connecticut," published in New Haven in 1787. It will not be out of place to quote liberally from this paper which is remarkable for the accuracy of observation and quaintness of diction.
"A child of Mr. Joel Grannis, a respectful farmer in the town of Southington, in the first week of its infancy, was attacked with