A study was made of the problem of flaccidity in cases of hemiplegia due to lesions of the medulla. Eleven cases were used for this purpose: 10 cases of softening of the median section of the medulla oblongata (2 personal cases and 8 found in the literature) and 1 case of hemisection of the medulla. In this group, 7 cases with a long survival period exhibited a spastic hemiplegia, 2 cases with a short survival period were accompanied by hemiplegia in a state of transition to spasticity. 1 case with a short survival time (6 days) exhibited flaccid hemiplegia; only 1 case with a long survival time was accompanied by a permanent flaccid hemiplegia. The results of this study indicate that lesions of the anterior pyramid in man are accompanied by spasticity.