In an attempt to determine whether a bacteremia can be demonstrated as an occasional or a frequent accompaniment of an acute or a subacute infection of the upper respiratory tract, series of blood cultures were taken at various times in children at the Children's Memorial Hospital, Chicago. In connection with these blood cultures, additional cultures were taken of the throat, nose and some of the complications, when present.
We were unfortunate in not finding many cases of the typical type of throat infections in the very early stage that we desired, that is, while the throat and nose were acutely inflamed with a temperature of 102 F. or over and before any complications such as mastoiditis, pneumonia or appendicitis had occurred. However, we found a great number of subacute throat infections in some of which secondary manifestations had occurred with the apparent etiologic factor in the throat infection. It is