Abortive pneumonia is the term applied by Wunderlich1 to that class of cases presenting the clinical picture of pneumonia together with the usual signs of pulmonary consolidation, yet running an exceedingly brief and mild course, often terminating by crisis on the second or third day. Credit is given Eugen Seitz by Krafft2 for first describing this condition. Following him it has been described under various names, pneumonic febricula (Bernheim), peripneumonic synocha (Marrotte), hemopneumonia (Woillez), and rudimentary pneumonia (Finkler). The later reports of Bechtold3 in 1905, and of Krafft2 and Kerr4 in 1910, have made the condition more or less familiar.
The statement of Aufrecht5 that the so-called abortive pneumonia is far more frequent than the reported cases would indicate, is probably correct. Because of the brevity of the disease, many cases are not seen by the physician and the diagnosis in any event is