The Schick Test in Poliomyelitis, Scarlet Fever, Measles and in Normal Children

The routine employment of the Schick test in children with poliomyelitis admitted to the Willard Parker Hospital during the recent epidemic established a most interesting and significant fact. This, in conjunction with some previously published observations on the Schick reaction in normal children and in children suffering from scarlet fever, and some more recent observations with the test in cases of measles, may throw some light on the still open question of natural immunity and suceptibility of individuals to infectious diseases. From a previous communication on the Schick reaction1the accompanying tables (Tables 1 and 2) are taken. The tables show the results obtained with the test on a large series of normal children and scarlet fever patients. It is interesting to note that normal children between the ages of 2 and 4 years show about 32 per cent. of positive reaction, as compared with scarlet fever patients, of