A perusal of textbooks gives little information regarding the incubation period or the mode of entrance of the virus of herpes zoster into the body. Burgoon et al.1 quote Kundratitz as follows: "In human inoculation experiments, a period of seven to fourteen days elapsed between injection of herpes zoster fluid and the production of a reaction.'' An incident which recently occurred in my family related to the above is the reason for this note.
My daughter, aged 4, had sniffles and mild irritability for 12 days and then developed a typical chickenpox eruption. As soon as the eruption appeared, the sniffles and the irritability disappeared. She was given trimeprazine (Temaril*) in a dosage of 2.5 mg. three times a day and at bedtime, which allayed pruritus during the entire duration of the disease. Twenty-four hours later my wife complained of a severe sore throat, and examina