Although the newer chemotherapeutic agents have not changed the outlook in pneumococcic meningitis as strikingly as in streptococcic meningitis, their use, together with specific serum, has made the prognosis much more hopeful in this highly fatal disease. In the past three years there have been several reports of small groups of cases or single cases in which recovery appears to have resulted from these agents, used alone or in combination.1 Prior to July 1938 only one of us had observed a recovery in pneumococcic meningitis. Between 1912 and 1937 there had been two recoveries at Cook County Contagious Hospital. Perusal of the medical literature confirmed the impression that prior to 1937 this disease had been almost invariably fatal.2 From July 1, 1938, to Feb. 1, 1940, we treated twenty-two patients, seven of whom recovered. Only the cases in which recovery occurred are described in detail in this communication,