CLINICAL MANIFESTATIONS OF WEIL'S DISEASE WITH PARTICULAR REFERENCE TO MENINGITIS

Abstract

Before 1935 only 11 cases of Weil's disease had been reported from the United States.¹ Since that time additional cases have been reported with increasing rapidity.² Several excellent summaries³ of the clinical manifestations of the disease have also appeared in the American and foreign literature. Nevertheless it is still not widely appreciated in America that this malady may occur in a meningitic form and that jaundice is not a necessary concomitant. HISTORY AND INCIDENCE OF MENINGITIS IN WEIL'S DISEASE What would appear to be the first recorded case of meningitis in Weil's disease was reported by Laubry and Parvu,⁴ of Paris, France, in October 1910. These authors described 3 atypical cases of lymphocytic meningitis; 1 of the patients had jaundice and a clinical course which simulated that of Weil's disease. One week later Gullain and Richet⁵ described, and illustrated with 4 case reports, a distinct