192 
Miscellanea 
tubercular population. The non- tubercular found by this chart actually increase aftei- age 17 for 
many years so that the non-tubercular not only have no mortality but are increased by some 
process of resurrection ! Admittedly the chart is hy2Jothetical but as it stands it calls for 
amendment. 
Dr Andvord's remark that "one would hardly gather from these per-thousand curves," i.e. 
from rates of mortality for various ages, " that, as is really the case, more persons die from 
tuberculosis in the first and second years of life than in any subsequent age period " seems to 
betray an inexperience in matters related to a life table : this weakness is shown elsewhere, e.g. 
p. 102, where deaths are stated without populations and without reference to age distributions. 
Dr Andvord may have other evidence in support of his views but the article under review 
does not justify them statistically ; we think every point he brings out could be explained as 
well on other hypotheses. lie cannot, moreover, completely prove his case till he has studied 
communities which become subject to infection after having been kept free from it. For if his 
theory be correct, the measures he proposes would necessarily produce such a community. 
W. Palin Elderton. 
