Last month, in Part II of the February issue of the ANNALS the editors presented, as Supplement No. 5, a group of seven papers under the common title of Rheumatic Fever in Children and Adolescents: a Long-term Epidemiologic Study of Subsequent Prophylaxis, Streptococcal Infections, and Clinical Sequelae. These papers reported the details of the organization, performance, and results of a piece of clinical investigation that has few parallels in recent years.
The results, in themselves, are definitive. Parenteral penicillin is more effective than is oral penicillin or sulfadiazine in reducing the incidence of streptococcal infections and in preventing the recurrence