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Dr Little's Diagnosis of Richard III

Pasquale J. Accardo, MD

JAMA. 1980;244(24):2746-2747.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

THROUGH the first half of the 19th century, obstetric textbooks stated that asphyxiated babies either died or recovered completely. William John Little described the possibility of a third outcome—movement disorders that would not become apparent until a year or more after the initial insult. In the discussion following the delivery of his classic paper on cerebral palsy before the London Obstetrical Society,¹ Dr Little mentioned that he had not found any references to the long-term effects of abnormal and premature parturition in the medical literature. Recognizing the novelty of his insight, he had recourse to Shakespeare for the earliest suggestion of adult deformity secondary to neonatal asphyxia. Without criticizing the historical accuracy of Shakespeare's portrait of King Richard III, he was convinced that the poetic description of Richard's physical and moral character was "exactly that of an individual afflicted with one kind of deformity originating at birth."

Delivered after . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

Author Affiliations
From the Department of Pediatrics, The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and the John F. Kennedy Institute, Baltimore.

Footnotes
Reprint requests to Room 121-D, John F. Kennedy Institute, 707 N Broadway, Baltimore, MD 21205 (Dr Accardo).

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