SERUM THERAPY 137 



Cerebrospinal meningitis is most prevalent in 

 the winter and spring, and is primarily a disease 

 of young children the greater number of cases 

 occurring before twenty years of age. On the 

 whole, it would appear as though children under 

 ten years of age were most susceptible to the 

 disease; for, in the epidemic of 1905 in New 

 York City, 67 per cent of the 2,180 cases oc- 

 curred in children under ten years of age. 



Mortality The average mortality of cerebro- 

 spinal meningitis in this country and in Europe, 

 before serum treatment was instituted, ranged 

 between 70 and 90 per cent. Thus, in the epi- 

 demic of 1904-5 in New York City, in which 

 there were 6,755 cases, 90 per cent died. In chil- 

 dren under five years of age the mortality was 

 1 00 per cent. 



Flexner's Work Although the etiologic 

 factor in epidemic cerebrospinal meningitis was 

 completely described by Weichselbaum in 1887 

 as the diplococcus intracellularis meningitidis, 

 no specific remedy was evolved until 1906 when 

 Dr. Simon Flexner, Director of the Rockefeller 

 Institute for Medical Research, perfected Anti- 

 meningococcus Serum. Almost coincidentally, 

 Jochmann of Breslau reported a series of cases 



