A symposium on virus and rickettsial diseases was held in June
1939 in Boston under the auspices of the Harvard School of
Public Health. This volume is an amplified record of the thirty-
four papers presented at that meeting. In view of the many
recent developments in the field of the virus and rickettsial
diseases, this volume should be welcome at the present time. It
has been some years since any comprehensive work covering this
field has been published in the English language. The following
virus and rickettsial diseases affecting man are discussed:
variola, vaccinia, measles, mumps, dengue fever, venereal
lymphogranuloma, influenza, psittacosis, poliomyelitis, epidemic
encephalitis, equine encephalomyelitis, rabies, lymphocytic
choriomeningitis, louping ill, yellow fever, the typhus fever
group, the spotted fever group and the tsutsugamushi disease
group. The review of these diseases is well carried out. The
role of animals as reservoirs for certain of these diseases is
considered, and