Meningococcic and Nonmeningococcic Meningitis in the New-Born and in Young Infants

There is no disease, with the exception of diphtheria, in which the early detection and determination of the correct etiologic diagnosis is of such prime life-saving importance as in meningococcic meningitis. Any additions to the literature on this subject which emphasize this fact and furnish data that may be helpful in making physicians more keenly aware of the early diagnostic characteristics of meningitis should be of great value for the public health. In infants meningitis, of whatever etiology, is frequently indefinite, atypical, protean and masked in its clinical manifestations—a fact which explains the usual delay in diagnosis and treatment and the consequent extremely high mortality rate. Meningococcic meningitis in infants under 1 year of age is relatively rare and in the new-born and in infants in the first weeks and months of life it is still rarer. The cases presented here were in the new-born and in young infants and