Thrush, or oidial stomatitis, has been comparatively neglected in recent medical literature,1 and its importance, both as a clinical and as an epidemiologic problem, has been too generally minimized. Clinically, it is commonly regarded as an innocuous infection, readily curable or self-limited in duration, whereas it is not uncommonly severe and occasionally fatal; not infrequently it fails to yield even to vigorous treatment, and without treatment it may run a course of many weeks. As a problem of institutional hygiene in the prevention and control of epidemics, particularly in wards for new-born infants, its importance is second only to that of impetigo.
It is generally considered that oidial stomatitis is due to contamination from imperfectly sterilized nursing bottles or nipples, from the introduction of unsterile cleansing solutions into the mouth and from the mother's breasts or from the hands of attendants. It is believed that premature, weak, athreptic infants