Before Quincke invented the lumbar puncture in 1891, the knowledge concerning purulent meningitis was incomplete.
Prior to that date only the fatal purulent meningitis was recognized as a real meningitis, and the patients who during the course of an acute or chronic purulent otitis showed symptoms of meningitis but recovered were not considered to have suffered from purulent meningitis. It was thought to be only a serous meningitis or meningeal irritation.
Thanks to lumbar puncture and to examination of the cerebral spinal fluid, a number of patients, although suffering from an aural purulent meningitis (high pressure of the spinal fluid, excessive number of leukocytes and bacteria), can now be cured if operated on in time.
During the last decades, systematic examination of the spinal fluid of aural patients has considerably altered the views on meningitis, its symptomatology, diagnosis, prognosis and treatment.
When general practitioners speak of purulent meningitis, they