DERMATITIS herpetiformis has become a less intractable disease since we have had available several modern chemotherapeutic and antibiotic agents. The number of remedies suggested for this chronic disease continues to grow, but the sulfonamides have been for some time now the most effective for treating it. Of the latter group, sulfapyridine is by far the best. For a while it was thought it was some component of sulfapyridine that accounted for its peculiar effectiveness. The pyridine part of the molecule suggested itself for this purpose, and so various chemicals with such parts in common were tried. All but sulfapyridine were ineffective. As a result of this observation and because of the occasional good results that follow the use of antibiotics, some believe that dermatitis herpetiformis represents a kind of cutaneous reaction to the presence of certain bacteria somewhere in the body. Even when we do find some effective therapeutic agent,