No. 4.] TUBERCULOSIS. 343 



decreasing. This kind of talk has gone so far that in one 

 case we have read of a man offering to take daily potions of 

 milk impregnated with the bacilli of tuberculosis, as an ob- 

 ject lesson proving their harmlcssness. 



I am familiar with a town through which a railroad has run 

 for many years. One of the principal streets crosses the track 

 at grade, and hundreds of people pass and repass every day. 

 I have frequently crossed the rails at that point myself, with- 

 out any apparent risk. But one day an omnibus with some 

 of the most promising and best-known young men in town 

 was being driven over the crossing. In some way the driver 

 failed to be aware of an approaching train, which crashed 

 into the vehicle, killing and maiming some six or eight per- 

 sons. A thrill of horror ran through the community, and a 

 prompt recognition of the danger of the crossing was on 

 every one's tongue. Immediately it was decided that some- 

 thing must be done, and the corporation was compelled to 

 station a flagman there. At that time, would an offer from 

 me to walk to and fro over that crossing every day for a 

 year, as proof of its comparative harmlessness, have availed 

 anything, or, if accepted, would it really have proved that 

 there was no danger? Would the absence of any accident to 

 one hundred thousand people who might cross the rails for 

 the next ten years prove that no danger existed? In spite 

 of the small percentage of injuries, in spite of the relatively 

 small probability that any specified individual would meet 

 with danger, the expense of such precautions as flagmen or 

 gates was wisely deemed necessary. 



What shall we do about the milk supply? Exactly what 

 is done in the case of the railroad or electric wire accident. 

 The quiet, unostentatious work of student, experimenter and 

 producer alleviate these dangers. Even if an appeal to re- 

 strictive legislation is necessary, newspaper broadsides, illus- 

 trated with views of blood-curdling horrors, are not essential, 

 and may even retard "the good cause. 



It is a fact that tuberculosis is now on the decrease, owing 

 to more knowledge of it and how it should be controlled. 

 In Boston, from 1S4<! to 1865, the number of annual deaths 

 from consumption per 1,000 of population ranged from 40 

 to 48. From 1886 to 1896 thev had declined to from 25 to 



