134 



case, that may still develop, in its ineipiency. In the meantime it 

 may be said that the milk supply of the City and County of Hono- 

 lulu, to all intents and purposes, is free from tuberculous infec- 

 tion and it is to be hoped that this i^'ood work which has only 

 recently been inaugurated on the other islands, where deputy terri- 

 torial veterinarians are located, will progress and meet with the 

 same support from the public as has been the case here. Up 

 to the present time the efforts of this Board to do its share in 

 fighting- the Great White Plague by suppressing the one source 

 of infantile tuberculous infection that we know cati be sitp- 

 pressed. — viz.. the milk-l)orne infection — has met with but luke- 

 warm support from the nuuiicipal authorities in this county and 

 none at all in the other counties, while the Territorial Board of 

 Health is doing splendid work all over the Territory fighting the 

 spread of the disease among all classes and nationalities of the 

 population. Whether the efforts of the Board of Agriculture and 

 Forestry along these lines are of any actual value in saving 

 human lives has frequently been disputed, but knowing as we do 

 that children imder five years of age are especially susceptible to 

 the bovine tuberculous infection, so often contained in milk from 

 tuberculous cows, the Board of Health w'as asked for statistics in 

 regard to the mortality among children from tuberculosis in Ho- 

 nolulu as compared to the rest of the Territory, during the jieriod 

 of the last three years. The report received covers the number of 

 cases, with the number of deaths, of all forms of tuberculosis 

 among chiklren under five years of age, in the entire Territory 

 and in the district of Honolulu alone, and proves clearly that 

 there has been a decrease in the number of cases in I lonohdu 

 since 1910, of more than 66%, or to one-third of the annual 

 number of cases, while the number of deaths has decreased more 

 than 7S%, or to one-fourth of the annual number of deaths. On 

 the other hand the number of cases for tlu' entire Territory 

 shows an increase of 40% and the mortality an increase of 80% 

 per annum. These figures cover the j^eriod from Ajiril. l')10, to 

 June, 1913, with a total of 102 cases of infantile tuberculosis with 

 90 deaths, of which nimiber .^0 cases with 3.^ deaths occurred in 

 Honohdu. Hut wlierias the last year, ending June 30. l')13. gave 

 the entire Territory 36 eases with M deaths, the Districl of Ho- 

 nolulu liacl only 9 cases with ? deaths, which warr.mts the con- 

 clusion that some extraordinary factor nuist have contributed t(^ 

 this immense reduction in tlu' local i)revalence of the disease 

 which it woidd nut seem far- fetched to ,-itlri])Ute, at least in part, 

 to the absence of the specific infection, the tnbertle hacillus from 

 the local milk supply, esi)ccially as milk f<unis smdi ,in iinport.mt 

 part of the food of children under five years of age. 



liy this inference it is not lueant to take an iota of credit away 

 from the splendid work done by the Anti-'i'uberenlnsis League 

 of Hawaii and the Territorial I'oard <if Health, but ,in analysis 

 of the- statistics, conlaint'd in the paniphlet puhlished by the 



