Actinomycosis, while a relatively uncommon disease, has been recognized for years. As early as 1841, it was known to affect man. Some years later Ponfick1 reported the first two cases of actinomycosis of the brain.
The frequency with which the central nervous system is involved in actinomycosis is difficult to determine. Osler,2 Lewandowsky,3 Oppenheim4 and others report isolated cases and call attention to its rarity. Ruhräh,5 in 1899, collected sixty-five cases of actinomycosis, nine with involvement of the nervous system. Von Baracz,6 in 1903, reported sixty cases, in no instance showing involvement of the central nervous system. Cranwell,7 in an exhaustive investigation in South America, fails to mention cerebrospinal invasion.
The impression gained would be that the central nervous system is markedly free from actinomycotic involvement. However, in a careful review of the literature forty-eight cases of actinomycosis with involvement of the central