THE CLASSIFICATION OF THE FORMS OF CEREBROSPINAL MENINGITIS
Cerebrospinal meningitis is an infectious disease of the pia mater and arachnoid membranes of the brain and spinal cord. The confused basis of the classification of diseases, which is a legacy from former times, has led to considerable obscurity in the nomenclature used in describing these infections. In the past diseases have been successively classified on bases which have been changed from time to time as our knowledge has increased. We have had classifications based on symptomatology, on vague, unsupported and false notions as to etiology, on morbid anatomic lesion, and on etiology. These former classifications are still to be traced in descriptive terminology, from the fact that we are prone to cling to the names after the ideas which they represent have been superseded by more exact knowledge. Thus the term cerebrospinal meningitis dates from that era in which diseases were