R.: On the importance of malaria as a cause of false positive serologic reactions, Ann. Int Med

THE evaluation of positive serologic tests for syphilis is a problem which every physician must face. A diagnosis of syphilis is a serious matter, and its implications may be far reaching. Failure to start treatment in a known syphilitic as early as possible may well be grounds for malpractice. Equally serious and sometimes disastrous is a diagnosis of syphilis in some one who does not have the disease. From a public health point of view this may not be of much concern since in the general population of healthy individuals diagnostic errors due to false positive serologic reactions occur in only about 1 in 4000 individuals.4 Looked at from the individual patient's standpoint, however, such statis-tics mean little. No patient wants to be labeled a syphilitic unless he has the disease since he knows, or soon learns, that this entails prolonged, and un-fortunately, in some hands, painful treatment with drugs which are not entirely devoid of danger. Therefore, due caution must be exercised in making every diagnosis of syphilis. In the presence of clinical or historica