A recent and unusual case of high blood pressure in nephritis in a boy of 10 stimulated a review of the literature to ascertain the frequency with which, and to what degree, hypertension occurred in nephritis in children. Considering the attention blood pressure has received' in the nephritis of adults, we were immediately struck by the scarcity of literature relating to blood pressure in nephritis occurring in the early years of life. Shaw1 reports three cases of acute nephritis in children

more »

... h blood pressure readings, and concludes that "hypertension in acute nephritis, so constant in adults, is not so marked in children." Gordon2 reports the blood pressure in nine cases, seven of which were acute nephritis and two chronic cases with acute symptoms superimposed. He found that the blood pressure in acute nephritis is elevated, and that the increase may be very great, one of his cases having a pressure of 180 mm. Hg. He also pointed out that the cases with the highest pressure show very little edema, but have large amounts of blood in the urine. The large amount of blood, he believes, is due to a rupture of renal capillaries by increased pressure. Barber3 reports three cases of chronic interstitial nephritis in children. The blood pressure was below 100 mm. Hg on several occasions in the one case that he tested. Wessler* found a latent hypertrophy of the heart occurring in nephritis in children which he believes is secondary to arterial hypertension. Bugge5 asserts that the blood pressure in both orthostatic and nephritic albuminuria is usually normal. Bass and Wessler,6 after analyzing twenty-six cases of orthostatic albuminuria, conclude that the blood pressure differs but little from normal. Thus, while increased tension is expected, according to most authors, the evidence is not conclusive, and no figures have been reported giving the constancy or extreme limits of the increase. In the records of the Massachusetts General Hospital and the medi¬ cal service of the Children's Hospital, ninety-three cases of nephritis