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In some areas of the Philippines, three important and interrelated changes in the traditional pattern of local leadership recruitment and faction organization had been taking place for several decades. Notables from old leading families were being replaced in positions of leadership by upwardly mobile “new men” from more humble backgrounds. Professional politicians were emerging in the local arena. Local factions were being transformed from traditional family-centered organizations into specialized machines. These changes were most likely to occur in areas of comparatively high social mobilization and low concentration of landownership. Changes are explained primarily by the impact of increasingly intense national political competition in rural communities and growing mass participation. These changes represent a decline in the autonomy of local elites, as they were accompanied by the latters' growing reliance on central resources to maintain their machines. These changes and the forces behind them are well illustrated by the pattern of political change in the town of Taal, Batangas during this century, which is reported in great detail.

factional competition was a prominent feature of life in many Philippine towns during the Spanish era. In such communities, it became the major force underlying political competition when local elections were introduced and parties were organized early in the American colonial period." Although it still persists, factionalism has been undergoing significant changes in some towns. This paper describes changes in local factional politics and faction organization in the Philippines and specifies the conditions under which they are taking place. Analysis of changes in Philippine factionalism is important because they are potentially significant for the operation of the political system and the prospects for change. Factions act as local branches of the national political parties in many towns, and they have had much influence on the nature and operation of those parties. They have also contributed to bringing national influences into local communities. Hence, this paper also suggests how changes in factionalism may be reflected in broader changes in town politics and in the national parties and the implications both may have for the political system.

THE clinical picture of varicella, like that of other infectious diseases, presents wide variation. Besides the known irregularities in rash distribution, anomalies of the prodromal period and of the exanthem have been described (Schamberg and Kolmer, 1928a; Ronaldson and Kelleher, 1938). In the present paper, the relevant features of five cases are presented and the apparent association of the anomaly with a previous skin condition is pointed out in three cases. All five cases were observed between 1954 and 1955 when no laboratory technique was available for identification of varicella virus or antibody. In three cases, fluid collected from vesicles was inoculated on the chick-embryo chorioallantois after treatment with a mixture of penicillin and streptomycin. Reinoculations of the original inocula and serial blind passages were made to eliminate the possibility of variola virus being the agent involved since this virus may sometimes fail to provoke typical lesions (MacCallum, I954). Besides, the failure to find chorioallantoic lesions supported the clinical diagnosis since varicella virus does not provoke lesions (Irons, Bohls, Cook and Murphy, I941; MacCallum, 1954). Biopsies of representative skin lesions were made in two cases and the histological findings were interpreted in the light of recent reviews of the pathology of viral pocks (Lever, 1949; McNair Scott, Blank, Coriell and Crouse, I950).