A serological survey for canine visceral (VL) and American cutaneous leishmaniasis (ACL) has been carried out during 1984-1989, to assess the effects of the prophylactic measures adopted in areas where there was a risk of transmission of the diseases in Rio de Janeiro. A previous serological survey (1982/83) had detected serum positive dogs as well as the human disease in these same areas. A total of 22,828 dogs have been examined in this last survey, 7,807 of which came from Campo Grande (VL and ACL area), 4,110 from Jacarepaguá (ACL area), 4,146 from Realengo, 3,879 from Bangu and 2,886 from Senador Camará, (three VL areas). The analysis of these results showed a notable reduction in the number of serum positive dogs, compared to those of the first survey of 1982/83 as follows: (a) in Campo Grande (VL and ACL) the infection rate of the first survey was 12.7%, against 0.62% of the second; (b) in Jacarepaguá (ACL) it decreased from 8.6% to 1.8% (c) in Bangu, Realengo and Senador Camará (VL) the rate decreased from 4.3% to 0.38%. The results indicate that this decrease was due to the prophylactic measures adopted in those areas.

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most marked in the upper part of the follicle, and was thinner in the lower. The sebaceous cells themselves could only be dis¬ tinguished in the deepest parts of the follicles; they were atrophie and flattened, evidently from pressure. In none of the specimens could any hair structures be found.In the smallest and earliest lesions the dilated follicle formed an irregularly oval sac, broad above and pointed in its deepest portion. In the larger and later lesions the sac was broad and erateriform. (Figs. 3 and 4.) And in every case the sac was occupied by the keratinized mass that is characteristic of the disease. There were some migratory cells in the connective tissue around the walls of the sebaceous glands, but in general the evidences of inflammatory action were but slightly marked.The corneous plug itself was composed of a mass of imper¬ fectly keratinized corneous cells. (Fig. .) Throughout its mass the protoplasm and nuclei could be stained, showing that the process of keratinization was incomplete. In the upper entrai part of each fully developed plug, however, was a small Fig. 5.-Acne keratosa. Deep portion of corneous plug, showing degenerated cells resembling psorosperras. mass of cell material that seemed to have undergone a com¬ plete change, and in which no persistence of cell structure could be demonstrated. No necrotic hairs or their remains, as claimed by Tenneson and Leredde, were found in any of the plugs.Differential Diagnosis.-The anatomic picture resembles that of ordinary acne and comedo in some respects ; but it differs in the absence of the small-celled perivascular infiltration sur¬ rounding the follicular epithelium that marks the inflamma¬ tory nature of the acne lesions, and the comedo plugs are not composed entirely of imperfectly keratinized corneous cells.It is as characteristic in its way as is the clinical picture of the affection. I might add that the larger oval and crescentic lesions that were exceptionally noted were found microscopically to be ex¬ actly similar to the smaller ones.The cases, therefore, were true hyperkeratoses of the seba-ceous glands, without any demonstrable pilar involvement. We are entirely in the dark as to its cause.In both the cases that came under my observation the affection was confined to the backs of the hands and the face, a fact that inclines me to believe that a contagious element of some kind, spread by direct local transfer, was its cause.144 West Forty-eighth Street.

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