226 Transactions of the Society. 



be thrown on these observations) of its persistence in the throat oi 

 a carrier for two or three months or more. Under these conditions, 

 may not the individual acquire an immunity against its attacks ? 

 It is obvious that this is only one among the many questions 

 that remain to be settled concerning this disease, and although it 

 is most devoutly to be hoped that the opportunities for study will 

 not be too prolonged, we should make the most of those we have, 

 realizing in the meantime that the chances of infection are greatest 

 directly from patient to patient, that it is a contagious rather than 

 an infectious disease, and that the closer the contact and the worse 

 the conditions of ventilation the more likely is the disease to ln- 

 handed on from patient to patient or from patient to contact and 

 contact to patient. In the only real epidemic that I have had the 

 opportunity of following not more than a single patient has 

 appeared in any one of forty-five huts, and' the most severe, 

 in fact the only fatal case, of five was the last, and I hope the 

 final case, as since effective ventilation of the huts has been main- 

 tained there has been no further casa, and I shall be greatly sur- 

 prised and disappointed — if the ventilation be maintained — if 

 another makes its appearance. 



