Three types of antibody curve have been demonstrated by testing sera during the course of acquired toxoplasmosis by six different techniques. These three types are due to cell-wall antibody, (demonstrated by four of the techniques), to antibody to soluble antigen, and to IgM antibody to the cell wall. These findings have been supported by absorption experiments. A scheme is presented for testing single sera by two or three different tests to indicate the stage and duration of the infection.

SUMMARYAn account is given of some human diseases which affect one sex more than the other.An age–sex relationship has been noted among British patients with acquired toxoplasmic lymphadenopathy. This is compared with the findings of other European workers.A possible explanation is offered taking all these diseases into consideration together with some of the experimental work done in animals and some of the variations in immunological responses by man.

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Although a good deal is known about the incidence of nasal carriage of Staphylococcus aureus in infants in maternity hospitals, little is known of the incidence in infants born at home or in infants after the first few weeks of life. The work described here is an attempt to fill this gap, and at the same time to determine the relation of nasal carriage in the infant to carriage in the mother. In the latter part of the investigation the penicillin sensitivity of the strains isolated was also tested and phage-typing was used in an attempt to solve certain problems. METHODSClinical material. Nasal swabbing was carried out in five Child Welfare Clinics on 530 infants aged 2 weeks to 2 years, although only a small number (57) were swabbed in their second year. The mothers of 488 of these infants were also swabbed. The clinics were visited at irregular intervals and most of the infants and mothers present at the time of the visit were swabbed. In addition to noting the age of the infant a record was kept of whether it had been born in hospital or at home. The sample of the mother-infant population examined may be regarded as representative of those who were regular attenders at the clinics. Examination of random samples of clinic records showed that a high proportion of the mothers were attending with their first or second child. As was to be expected, a higher proportion of the mothers delivered in hospital were primiparae than of those delivered at home.At the end of the investigation nasal swabs were also cultured from nurses and infants in maternity hospitals C and F and from the mothers of the infants in hospital C. Swabs of the floor dust from the two nurseries in hospital F were also cultured for Staph. aureus. In the course of another investigation the Health Department ophthalmic nurse sent in eye and nose swabs from infants born at home and suffering from neonatal eye infections. Nasal swabs were also taken from the mothers. As the results already obtained in this investigation are relevant to the present work they have been included here. This group is referred to hereafter as the 'special home group'.Cultural technique. The anterior nares and adjacent vestibule of each side were swabbed, and the swab was inoculated on to culture media less than 2 hr. after sampling. At the beginning of the investigation, in 1948-9, swabs were at first cultured in parallel on digest agar and a tellurite agar (Ludlam, 1949). As there appeared to be no significant difference in the results obtained with these two media, the tellurite agar was then used alone; the medium was found more useful for picking out scanty Staph. aureus colonies among numerous colonies of other

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