MENINGITIS

(Lat.). n. f. Me"n(man>-i;>n(ian1')-ii(geVti!1s. Gen., -it'idos (-idis). From ft^fiyf, a membrane (see also -it is*). Fr., men in gite. Ger., M., (fehirnhautentzundung. Inflammation of the cerebral or spinal meninges, usually involving the subjacent ti ues of the brain or spinal cord. [D, 1.] Abortive cerebroBpiual in. Lat., m. cerebro-spinal is abortiva. A mild form of m. often observed during the prevalence of an epidemic of the severe forms. Usually it is not of sufficient severity' to confine the patient to his bed. [D, 35.] Acute cerebral m. Fr., men in gite cerebrate aigue. Inflammation of the cerebral pia and arachnoid (never of the dura). [D, 34.] Acute spinal in. Fr., men in gite spinale aigue. Acute inflammation of one or all of the spinal membranes. The form affecting the pia alone is the only one separately recognizable. [D, 34.] Ascending in. Of Charcot, m. in which the inflammation commences in the lower portion of the spinal cord and ascends, [a, 34.] liasilar in. Inflammation of the membranes of the inferior surface of the brain. [D, 34.] See also Tubercular m. and Syphilitic m. Cerebral in. Lat., m. cerebral is. Fr., men in gite cerebrale. An inflammation of the meninges of the brain, [a, 34.] Cerebro-spinal m. Lat., m. cerebro-spinal is. Fr., men in gite cerebro-spinale. Syn.: cerebro-spinal fever (or typhus). An epidemic febrile disease due to a purulent inflammation of the cerebral and spinal pia. It occurs principally in cold weather, and more frequently among the poor and the ill-fed. In some epidemics children are chiefly attacked, in others young adults, in still others adults approaching middle life. In many of its visitations it has been confined to prisons, workhouses, and garrisons. It is initiated by a chill, with subsequent prostration, vomiting, and rise of temperature, intense headache, often a ociated with vertigo, eventual dejirium and stupor; also with pain in the nape of the neck, loins, epigastrium, and lower extremities, severe pain on movement of the cervical or spinal muscles, and perhaps tetanus, an anxious face, mydriasis, and sometimes diplopia, and a low muttering delirium. There is cutaneous hyperaestnesia; and between the first day and the third there is a macular eruption, at first red, subsequently purple. The pulse, slow at first, becomes irregular and rapid; the breathing is rapid, the stomach irritable; the spleen may enlarge; the bowels are constipated at first, afterward relaxed. Death may occur early; or the disease may be protracted, with deafne , blindne , convulsions, and retention of urine as prominent symptoms. Cocci supposed to be the cause of the disease are found, resembling the diplococcus of pneumonia and the cocci of erysipelas. [B, 206; D, 35; a, M.] Chronic cerebral in. Fr., tneningite cerebrale chr rrhn , ah; A, all; Ch, oliin; Ch, loch (Scottish); [s. 742]