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To the Editor:
—Some time ago the Archives of Internal Medicine (76:328, 1945) published an article of mine purporting to describe an outbreak of primary atypical pneumonia observed in Italy early in 1944.More recently, I encountered in the American Journal of Hygiene (44:6, July, 1946) a series of interesting studies on Q fever as it appeared among troops in and returning from Italy. A comparison of the clinical features of the cases described by Robbins and Ragan (Am. J. Hyg. 44:6 (July) 1946) and Feinstein and others (ibid. 44:72 (July) 1946) with those I published in the Archies leads me to the belief that my patients suffered from Q fever. Clinically, the rather sudden onset, early headache, duration and type of fever, paucity of physical findings in the chest, roentgenologic picture and lack of formation of cold agglutinins were characteristic of all the descriptions.Though