REAPPEARANCE OF A POSITIVE DICK TEST

Ferry1recently called attention to the reappearance of a positive Dick test in a patient who contracted measles. About eighteen months ago, fifty-five nurses were divided into two groups, one of twenty, actively immunized against scarlet fever, and the remaining thirty-five, not protected, serving as a control series. All of the latter have subsequently developed scarlet fever, while nineteen of the twenty protected nurses have continued negative although frequently exposed to the disease. Fifteen of the nurses who developed scarlet fever developed redness at the site of the old Dick test. The longest interval between the reappearance of the redness with scarlet fever and the primary Dick test was one year, in two instances. All other nurses who had local redness had their scarlet fever within from two to three weeks after their test. In two instances, the redness occurred around the Dick test before