Although meningococcus meningitis is a common disease in later infancy and childhood, it is extremely rare during the first two months of life. In a careful review of the literature, I have been able to find reported only six cases of meningococcus meningitis occuring in infants under 2 months of age, only one of these having associated obstructive hydrocephalus. There are reported twenty-eight cases of meningitis due to organisms other than the meningococcus occurring in infants under 2 months of age. The causative organisms, and ages are shown in Table 1.
REVIEW OF LITERATURE
Meningococcus Cases.—Holt,1 in a discussion of 300 cases of meningitis in infancy and childhood mentions one case of meningococcus meningitis in an infant 5 weeks of age. This patient died of marasmus after all acute symptoms had subsided.Koplik,2 in an article on meningitis in the newly-born and infants up to 3 months of