diff --git a/Common/OpenFile.cpp b/Common/OpenFile.cpp
index 8aef3223a79a70223d0507ad96880a68fd64fb6f..e21234a9da6d49578fad16578adbdd73d0388974 100644
--- a/Common/OpenFile.cpp
+++ b/Common/OpenFile.cpp
@@ -360,7 +360,7 @@ int MergeFile(const char *name, int warn_if_missing)
     CTX.geom.draw = 1;
     if(!strncmp(header, "$PTS", 4) || !strncmp(header, "$NO", 3) || 
        !strncmp(header, "$PARA", 5) || !strncmp(header, "$ELM", 4) ||
-       !strncmp(header, "$MeshFormat", 11)) {
+       !strncmp(header, "$MeshFormat", 11) || !strncmp(header, "$Comments", 9)) {
       status = model->readMSH(name);
 #if !defined(HAVE_NO_POST)
       if(status > 1) status = PView::readMSH(name);
diff --git a/doc/texinfo/gmsh.texi b/doc/texinfo/gmsh.texi
index 67d0b1b7f4c5b2e684383e76bd81e92e8953de62..4a51d96704d3f1c92413d0dc2bf850170d03ac32 100644
--- a/doc/texinfo/gmsh.texi
+++ b/doc/texinfo/gmsh.texi
@@ -549,8 +549,8 @@ preceding rule.
 @findex /*, */
 @findex //
 
-All parsed input files (@file{.geo}, @file{.pos}) support both C and C++
-style comments:
+All parsed input files (@file{.geo}) support both C and C++ style
+comments:
 
 @enumerate
 @item
@@ -563,9 +563,10 @@ These commands won't have the described effects inside double quotes or
 inside keywords. Also note that `white space' (spaces, tabs, new line
 characters) is ignored inside all expressions.
 
-You can add comments in a mesh file (@file{.msh}) by creating a section
-with an unrecognized label (e.g. @code{$Comments}/@code{$EndComments}):
-see @ref{MSH ASCII file format}.
+You can add comments in a mesh file (@file{.msh}) by adding a section
+with an unrecognized label (e.g., @code{$Comments}/@code{$EndComments})
+after the @code{$MeshFormat}/@code{$EndMeshFormat} section: see @ref{MSH
+ASCII file format}.
 
 @c =========================================================================
 @c General tools
@@ -2992,7 +2993,8 @@ information about the file (@code{$MeshFormat}), followed by several
 optional sections defining the nodes (@code{$Nodes}), elements
 (@code{$Elements}), region names (@code{$PhysicalName}) and
 post-processing datasets (@code{$NodeData}, @code{$ElementData},
-@code{$ElementNodeData}). Sections can be repeated in the same file, and
+@code{$ElementNodeData}). Any section with an unrecognized header is
+simply ignored. Sections can be repeated in the same file, and
 post-processing sections can be put into separate files (e.g. one file
 per time step).