The clinical and pathological findings in a 6-month-old boy with III-IV pharyngeal puoch syndrome are reported. The infant had multiple congenital anomalies including absence of the parathyroid glands, maldescent of the thymus, aberrant right subclavian artery and dysfunction of the glossopharyngeal nerve. Because of persistence of the thymus in the cervical area, a thymic shadow was not found on roentgenographic examination of the anterior mediastinum. The weight and histology of the thymus were normal, as were studies of humoral and cellular immunity.

In an autopsy series 12 out of 152 cases of pneumonia occurring in patients under 20 years of age were found to be Hecht (giant cell) pneumonia (8 per cent). Histological examination of 400 pneumonias from patients over 20 years of age showed no such case. Six of the cases were considered to be due to measles on the basis of eosinophilic inclusion bodies in the cytoplasm and nuclei of the giant cells, Warthin‐Finkeldey cells in the lymphoid system and on clinical data. Only one had a typical exanthema. All cases with measles were between 2 and 11 years of age. In the remaining 6 cases there was no morphological or clinical evidence of measles. All, except one, were below 1 year of age. The role of depressed immunological function in the pathogenesis of Hecht pneumonia is discussed. In the group caused by measles the depressed immunological function may partly be iatrogenic due to immunospressive treatment of leukaemic children. The other group of cases consisted of children with inborn defects some of which showed morphological signs of immunodeficiency.

Stromal endolymphatic myosis is regarded as a mixed homologous tumour with a prominent proliferation of the stroma and a varying degree of proliferation of glandlike structures and vessels. A case is presented in which the patient was treated periodically with progestine. This therapy seems to have been of benefit in controlling the frequency of recurrence.