Multiple Congenital Defects Following Maternal Varicella

INVESTIGATION of the factors responsible for congenital malformations received tremendous impetus in 1941 with the classic report by Gregg,1 of Australia, of a series of cases in which maternal rubella was followed by a variety of anomalies in the offspring, particularly such ocular defects as cataract. Previously, it had been generally accepted that malformations do not result from environmental factors that operate for the first time after fertilization.2 Attention, therefore, had been directed chiefly at possible preconceptual causes. The studies of Gregg1 and of numerous subsequent workers, however, emphasized the necessity of according careful consideration to environmental conditions obtaining after . . .