promise. The Anti-Tuberculosis League can already point to a ten per
cent decline in the death rate from that plague in the decade from
1900 to 1910. [Footnote: For methods and results consult the Secretary
of the National Association for the Study and Prevention of Tuberculosis,
105 East Twenty-second Street, New York City. Free literature is sent,
and information furnished on request.] But while in New York City alone
nearly thirty thousand fresh victims are seized by the disease every
year, a voluntary organization cannot hope to cope with the situation;
the power and resources of the State are needed. The congestion of
population, and the lack of proper light and air, which are the
greatest factors, perhaps, in the spread of the scourge, must be
attacked by legislation. So typhoid must be fought not only by
vaccination, but by legislation insuring a pure water supply, proper
sewage disposal, and the protection of food from contamination.
Measures necessary to eradicate that pest, the house fly, must be
enforced, the mosquito must be as nearly as possible exterminated,
streets and yards must be kept clean, the smoke nuisance abated, the
slaughtering of animals and canning of food sharply regulated, sanitary
conditions enforced in homes and factories. One of the prerequisites
to any marked improvement will be the "taking out of politics" of the
public health service and making it an expert profession.

(3) Another service that the community must eventually, in its own
interests, provide, is free medical attendance, by really competent
physicians, wherever there is need. Without referring to the suffering
and anxiety spared, the expense of this service will far more than
be saved the State in the prevention of illness and premature death.
The most careful medical inspection of school children, including
attention by experts to eyes, ears, and teeth, is of utmost importance;
all sorts of ills can thus be averted which the parents are too ignorant