Twenty-three patients with pyogenic meningitis were treated with chloramphenicol as the lone form of therapy. Chloromycetin hydrochloride was employed intravenously in 12 cases during the early stages of infection and chloromycetin palmitate® was employed as maintenance therapy. In 11 cases, oral chloromycetin palmitate® was used exclusively. This palatable form of chloramphenicol was well tolerated and produced measurable concentrations of antibiotic in the blood and spinal fluid. Of 23 patients treated, 22 recovered completely and one died. The fatality occurred in a critically ill child first treated on the eighth day of disease. Of the 22 recovered patients, 12 had meningitis caused by H. influenzae, 8 by N. intracellularis and 3 by D. pneumoniae.