| Summary: | Many observations indicate that immunological reactivity is conditioned to some extent by the degree of sexual maturity. In certain tropical and arctic communities where scarlet fever and diphtheria occur very rarely, negativity to both Schick and Dick tests has been found to develop at puberty. Certain dermatomycoses occur exclusively in childhood and heal spontaneously at puberty (1). The development of antibodies against antigen with which contact is not ordinarily established has been found to be similarly conditioned. Conflicting interpretations of such observations are discussed by Manwaring (2), Jungeblut (3), and Herrman (4). The incidence, severity, and character of the manifestations of rheumatic fever are apparently influenced by factors associated with age and sex. Most observers agree that the disease is chiefly prepubertal in origin, some studies (5, 6) indicating that 98 per cent of first attacks occur before the ages of 12 or 15. These investigations also show that
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