IT HAS not been generally appreciated that varicella may occasionally assume the form of a rather severe disease, especially in adults, nor is pneumonia recognized as a common complication of this disease. A review of the medical literature on the subject shows a paucity of articles regarding it, and only 1 fatal case with autopsy observations has been described. It is therefore considered worth while to add another case to the literature, particularly as careful postmortem studies, including attempts at virus transfers, were undertaken.
Waldman1 described a case of chickenpox in a Negro girl 8 years of age, in whom acute rheumatic endocarditis developed during the course of an ordinary uncomplicated attack, followed by lobar pneumonia of the lower lobe of the right lung, with a fatal termination on the tenth day of the disease. Autopsy was not permitted, but it was Waldman's opinion that the condition represented a