During the summer of 1970, an epidemic of Hand, Foot and Mouth Disease was observed in Nobeoka city and its vicinity. Virological studies were performed on feces, rectal swabs, pharyngeal swabs and vesicle fluids of the skin obtained from 21 patients who visited the hospital on June 11.
Virus isolations were positive on 17 patients' materials by means of inoculation into either suckling mice or primary cultures of monkey kidney cells. All the viruses isolated were proved to be Coxsackievirus A 16 by neutralization- test. In the present study, strains of Coxsackievirus A 16 could be isolated from 10 out of 13 vesicles.
The use of both the epidermis of the vesicles and the vesicle fluids seems to have contributed to -this high isolation rate. Discussions were also made on the doubtful pathogenecity of allegedly pathogenic viruses other than Al 6 and, at the same time, the emphasis was laid on the importance of virus isolation from the vesicles.

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FTA-ABS and TPHA, especially their specificity and sensitivity as a serum reaction of syphilis, were studied comparing with cardiolipin reaction, using 217 sera samples from patients with syphilis (21 primary syphilis 172 late latent s., and 24 congenital s.). The results were summarized as follows:
1) Sera of primary and congenital s. showed 100% positivity either by FTA-ABS or TPHA, while those of late latent s. were positive in 97.7% with FTA-ABS, in 94.2% with TPHA.
2) Results with FTA-ABS and TPHA were 100% accorded in primary and congenital s., while in late latent s., 95.3%: cases with positive FTA-ABS and negative TPHA were 4.1%, and the contrary, 0.6%.
3) For the purpose of diagnosing the healing or following the course of the disease, cardiolipin reaction is preferred, because the new two methods seemed less calibrating in revealing the changing of antibody titers. The two, however, were shown very useful in differentiating biological false positive reaction (BFP) or diagnosing the sera with unreliable results with cardiolipin reaction.

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