A child, aged 3 years, presented an acute purulent otitis media of the right ear. A myringotomy had been done within forty-eight hours of the onset of the otitis. The ear drained profusely, exuding a thin greenish yellow pus. No culture was taken. There was a prompt subsidence of the fever. Suddenly, ten days following the myringotomy, there occurred another elevation of the temperature to 103 F. and, coincident with the elevation of temperature, there appeared a swelling at the angle of the jaw on the left side. The swelling increased in size rapidly; it extended around the left angle of the jaw, obliterating it, and anteriorly, involving the entire left side of the face, over the zygoma and above and beyond it into the scalp. Posteriorly, the swelling extended behind the ear, over the mastoid prominence, where it was lost, over the occipital bone behind, and over the parietal