Chore'a

Chore'a (Gr. choreia, 'a dancing' or 'jumping'), a disease popularly called St Vitus's Dance, and consisting of a tendency to involuntary and irregular muscular contractions of the limbs and face, the mind and the functions of the brain generally being quite unaffected. The spasms of chorea differ from those of most other convulsive affections in being unaccompanied either by pain or by rigidity; being, in fact, momentary jerking movements, indicating rather a want of control of the will over the muscles than any real excess of their contractions. In some cases the disease resembles merely an exaggeration of the restlessness and 'fidgetiness' common among children; in others it goes so far as to be a very serious malady, and may even threaten life. Fatal cases, however, are fortunately very rare, and in the large majority of instances the disease yields readily to treatment carefully pursued, or disappears spontaneously in a few weeks or months. Chorea is a disease much more common among children of six years old and upwards than at any other period of life; it is also more common among female children than among males. Not infrequently it follows a fright or other mental shock, or the strain of overwork. In a large proportion of cases it is associated with acute rheumatism (rheumatic fever), or with heart-disease (endocarditis). The treatment generally pursued is the use of metallic tonics, such as zinc, copper, iron, and arsenic (the last, perhaps, the best), sometimes preceded or accompanied by purgatives. Anti-rheumatic remedies are in some cases very valuable. Exercise in the open air is also to be recommended; and gymnastics afford material aid in the cure. It is to be observed that the name St Vitus's Dance (see VITUS) was applied originally in Germany to a different form of disease from that above referred to—one closely approaching in its characters the epidemic 'dancing mania,' which, in Italy, was called Tarantism (q.v.).