From time to time healthy infants are admitted to Bellevue Hospital because the mothers are ill or are otherwise unable to care for them. In many instances the hospital stay is prolonged on account of technicalities in placement, and during this period cross infections and gastrointestinal upsets not infrequently supervene which further lengthen residence in the hospital.
This report is concerned with 5 infants, observed during the past three years, in whom fever developed after they were in the hospital and persisted for several months. The interval between admission to the hospital and appearance of persistent fever varied from seven to eighteen weeks. Usually the temperature was between 38.3 C. (101 F.) and 39.4 C. (103 F.), but in 1 instance it rose to 41.7 C. (107 F.). No definite cause for the fever could be found. In some instances the pharynx was reddened or an eardrum inflamed, but these