In 1922 Rivers1 was able to find reports of 152 cases of meningitis due to Haemophilus influenzae in children under 2 years of age, with only five recoveries. At that time he said, "Treatments of various kinds have been used, but as far as can be determined none has accomplished much." Until recently no improvement in methods of treatment had been offered which would warrant a more optimistic statement, as is indicated by the fact that in the most recent edition of their textbook Holt and McIntosh2 report only two recoveries in the records of the pediatric department of the Johns Hopkins Hospital.
In 1932 Ward and Fothergill3 described 5 cases of meningitis caused by the influenza bacillus in which the patients were given a specific antiserum complemented with fresh normal serum. All of the patients died eventually, but in every patient sterilization of the cerebrospinal fluid