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RACE'-IMPROVEMENT IN SWEDEN 79 



is about 14 % of the total death rate. As it is usually young persons who are 

 attacked by the disease, it is easy to understand what a fearful part tuberculosis 

 plays even in our country. In the fight against it, the Swedish National Society 

 against Tuberculosis has since the year 1904 done very serviceable work. This 

 society which carries on an exhaustive work in the way of enlightenment, and 

 supports practical antituberculosis work has during the most recent years espec^ 

 ially interested itself in the prevention of tuberculosis and in work among the 

 children. Besides dispensaries which have been found in Sweden since 1905, 

 the National Society against Tuberculosis has even founded homes for children 

 I threatened with the disease, and has supported colonies for them out in the 

 country, among others the settlements, started by the Abstinence Association of 

 Swedish Students (S. S. U. H.), for healthy children coming from infected homes. 

 By these visits to the settlements it is intended to strengthen the children so that 

 they have a better chance of conquering in the fight against tuberculosis in their 

 own homes. In this way or by some other means, e. g. by taking the children 

 from their homes at the earliest age possible (preferably at their birth, if the 

 parents are already consumptive), to try to prevent tuberculosis must be of the 

 greatest importance. The settling of the dwelling«house problem ought also to 

 give good help to the antituberculosis work. During some years a Royal Com* 

 mission has been at work arranging a united programme for our anti«tuberculosis 

 work in the future. This will pay the greatest attention to the prophylactic anti» 

 tuberculosis work, especially among the children. 



It is of especial importance that when reforms are close at hand, the general 

 opinion should be led in the right direction through educational means. This 

 work of educating the people is supported by large grants from the state, and 

 consists of lectures, circles for study, public libraries etc., during recent years it 

 has done a great deal towards raising the people. The work of enlightenment 

 has embraced the most widely separated subjects even including medical and hy= 

 gienic lectures. In regard to the position taken by the workers towards eugenic 

 questions, the following quotation from a recently published pamphlet (General 

 information on educational work), given out by the Worker's Educational Union 

 (A. B. F.) is significant: »Our educational organisations must not stand any longer 

 either, as strangers towards physical training. One must learn to understand that 

 all mental advancement is impossible in the long run, without one has good hu» 

 man material to work upon. The mental culture must be complemented by bod= 

 ily culture — — — . Those who have the arrangement of lectures ought to see 

 that the subjects of race«biology and eugenics, personal and social hygiene, and 

 other branches of physical education are taken up very extensively. These subjects 

 are also especially suitable for the circles for study.» Among the popular lecturers 

 on all that belongs to these subjects Professor Lundborg stands in the first place, 

 he has carried on an inclusive work by means of popular lectures and phamphlets 

 in medical hygienic, and before all in race»bioIogical and eugenic subjects. Sever* 

 al other University professors have also treated these subjects popularly. 



The temperance movement has most certainly been a powerful lever in the 

 spreading of social knowledge and in waking a sense of social responsibility in 

 the Swedish nation. During recent years the Temperance Societies have more 



