i8o INFECTION AND IMMUNITY 



of one-quarter the amount in the prevention and cure of tuber- 

 cular disease. 



"I believe that tuberculosis may be practically stamped out. 

 The reduction in the mortality from it in New York City, since 

 1886, has been about 40 per cent., which means if applied to the 

 Greater City, a decrease of more than 6000 in the number of 

 deaths annually caused by it. The vast significance of this is 

 still more enhanced when we remember that to a very large ex- 

 tent these deaths take place in the working period, between fifteen 

 and fifty-five years of age. I have no doubt that the measures, 

 first begun in a very small way in New York City fifteen years 

 ago, inadequate as they have been, have resulted in saving the 

 lives of at least twenty thousand persons. The annual deaths in 

 the Greater City still number between nine and ten thousand, 

 and we know that these are, to a very large extent, unnecessary." 



