INTRODUCTION
A neuropathic syndrome with features which do not conform to any recognised disease pattern has been known to occur in the West Indies for some years. It was first recorded by Strachan in 1888, and there have been other brief accounts since. The most detailed comes from Scott (1918) who called the condition a “Central Neuritis”. Asimilar syndrome has been reported from North and West Africa, Trinidad, Malaya, India, Java, Hong Kong and Spain during the Spanish Civil War (Spillane and Scott, 1945; Stannus, 1911; Moore, 1946; Money and Scott-Smith, 1955; Metevier, 1947; Pallister, 1940; Nichols, 1935; Hobbs and Forbes, 1946; and Crawford and Reid, 1947; Peraita, 1942). Dietary deficiency or imbalance is regarded as the main causative factor.
