Hereditary spastic paraplegia (HSP), also known as hereditary spastic paraparesis, familial spastic paraplegias, French settlement disease, or Strumpell-Lorrain disease, is a group of inherited diseases whose main feature is progressive stiffness and contraction (spasticity) in the lower limbs, as a result of damage to or dysfunction of the nerves. Hereditary spastic paraplegia was first described in 1883 by Adolph Strümpell, a German neurologist, and was later described more extensively in 1888 by Maurice Lorrain, a French physician.