1. Ninety-three cases of primary infective gastroenteritis are reviewed. In only one instance was a known pathogen isolated.2. The clinical features, epidemiology and postmortem findings are discussed.3. A serologically homogeneous strain ofBact. coliis described which was isolated in over 90% of cases.4. A discussion follows on the significance of these findings.

Gastro-enteritis in infants continues to attract much attention and numerous papers on this subject are published. The prevalence of this disease and the high mortality often associated with it make it most desirable that further investigations should be undertaken in order, if possible, to determine the etiological cause or causes and to devise methods of prevention and control. It will be, sufficient here to mention a few of the more recent contributions to the study of the general epidemiology of the disease such as those by Payling Wright (1946) and Deeny and O'Brien (1946), and to the records of specific outbreaks by Orniston (1941), Bloch (1941), Brown et al. (1945), Bray (1945, Gunn (1945), Gaixdner (1945), and Giles and Sangster (1948 Age-Sex IncidenceThe maximum incidence was associated with the first trimester with a peak at the second month and, in fact, fully a third of the cases were under two months, and 87 per cent. of the babies affected were within the first seven months of life. After seven months the figures decline sharply and only nine were more than one year old. On the whole the fatality rate appeared to be fairly constant for each monthly age-group in the first year of life. As regards sex, males were affected more frequently than females, although the mortality rate was practically the same in both (table 1).

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