The paper deals with the clinical symptoms and course of childhood tuberculous meningitis which were associated with M. tuberculosis form detected in the cerebrospinal fluid. It was found that with the bacterial forms of the agent in the liquor, the disease is characterized by an acute onset and rapid development of inflammatory changes. The timely chemotherapy of this group of the patients can cause a more rapid and marked effect. The clinical symptoms of tuberculous meningitis accompanied by the isolation of M. tuberculosis L forms only from the cerebrospinal fluid are characterized by an insidious onset and slow accumulation of pathologic changes. Basal and cerebrospinal forms of the disease are relatively frequent in these patients and their antituberculosis chemotherapy happens to be less effective.