In a group of 72 cases of retropharyngeal lymphadenitis in infants and young children on which the end-results are known, including those which subsided spontaneously, those which broke down and ruptured spontaneously, and those which were incised, the mortality was 9.7 per cent. If the 7 non-suppurating cases are excluded the mortality rate was 10.7 per cent, which approximates the mortality rates reported by others.