Introduction Glomerulonephritis is classically known as a disease of childhood. There is a widespread misconception that it rarely arises in adults. In the series reported by Ellis, 58% of his 173 cases of Type I glomerulonephritis had their onset before the age of 20 and 95% of the cases before 41 years of age.1 In that series there were no cases beginning after 60 years of age. Of his Type II cases, 70% were under 40 years of age. Keith 2 cited only one patient out of 50 over the age of 60 with glomerulonephritis, and Fishberg3 has reported that only once has he seen a primary attack in a patient over 60. According to Allen,4 70% of the cases of glomerulonephritis arise between the ages of 5 and 30. At least in part because of such writings, glomerulonephritis is rarely thought of as a possible cause