Herpes zoster, uncommon in childhood, is especially so in the newborn period of life. The pediatric texts are singularly vague on the subject, and in many there is no mention of it at all. From the rather scanty information at hand, herpes zoster in infancy most often involves the chest, with frequency of distribution over the abdomen, extremities, face and neck in the order given. The lesions are less painful and tend to heal more rapidly than in the adult, usually healing in ten days if the vesicles are unruptured. For many years herpes zoster has been thought to have some association with varicella, and at present a definite relationship between these two diseases seems fairly well established.
Comby,1 who has contributed considerable information about herpes zoster in childhood, has seen only eighty-four cases in patients between the ages of 8 months and 15 years, nine of whom were