Intracranial Hemorrhage in the New-Born

Two years ago at the meeting of this section, a preliminary report1of lumbar puncture tests on 100 consecutive new-born babies within from twelve to twenty-four hours after birth was presented. It was so surprising to find bloody and blood-tinged cerebrospinal fluid in many of these cases that similar tests to confirm or disprove the findings of the first series were performed on a second series of 100 new-born babies, and these observations have been continued until the total series consists of 500 new-born babies on whom a lumbar puncture was performed within from twelve to forty-eight hours after birth; bloody and blood-tinged cerebrospinal fluid was present in forty-five babies, that is, 9 per cent. This frequency of intracranial hemorrhage of varying degree in the new-born of this series suggests the importance of recognizing the clinical signs, if any, of its presence and of the early treatment of the