distributed of all diseases and also the most harmful as it renders 
vast stretches of land uninhabitable for whites—is one of the most 
beneficent activities of modern American medicine. For example, the 
study of the prevalence and geographical distribution of malarial 
fevers in the State of Alabama, through the circularization of practis¬ 
ing physicians, was begun in 1912. The object was to show by the 
report of these physicians the presence or absence of malaria, as well 
as in a reasonably accurate manner the relative intensity of the infec¬ 
tion in the several counties, by ascertaining the number of cases per 
one thousand population reported in each county during two years. 
Numerous Pasteur Institutes and similar institutions are doing good 
work, under American auspices, in the torrid and temperate zones. 
Investigations along the line of prevention of influenza, sleeping sick¬ 
ness, infantile paralysis, epidemic cerebrospinal meningitis, and other 
diseases are being pursued on a systematic basis. More or less suc¬ 
cessful attempts at immunization against many diseases by means of 
vaccines, are characteristic of the tendencies of modern medicine. 
It is now, for the first time in the history of this small planet 
which we call our world, that we have the co-operation of Federal and 
State aid, in addition to local health officers, with private philanthropy 
in the form of foundations and societies, for the prevention or suppres¬ 
sion of all diseased conditions of sufficient severity to constitute social 
diseases, racial poisons, or epidemics. A well marked tendency of 
modern American medicine is shown in the more or less co-ordinated 
measures conducted by State Board of Health laboratories and private 
philanthropy for the eradication of tuberculosis, cancer, and venereal 
diseases. At the present time a number of acute infectious diseases, 
such as typhoid fever, smallpox, and diphtheria, are fairly well under 
control. 
The new social development of American medicine manifests 
itself most distinctly in the handling of venereal diseases. A salient 
progress, made in the last few years, consists in the official declaration 
of syphilis, gonorrhea, and chancroid, as contagious, infectious, com¬ 
municable, and dangerous to the public health. Physicians who exam¬ 
ine or treat a person who has contracted one of these infections are 
now enjoined to instruct the patient in measures for preventing the 
spread of such disease, and to inform him of the necessity for treat¬ 
ment until cured. At the same time they are obliged to hand him a 
copy of the circular of information obtainable for this purpose from 
the State Board of Health. Druggists are forbidden to prescribe or 
recommend medicines to be used for the treatment of venereal dis¬ 
eases. A valuable measure for preventing syphilis consists in supply¬ 
ing the drug arsphenamine or equivalents to health officers, institutions, 
and physicians at State expense, under suitable restrictions, as these 
substances render cases of syphilis non-contagious in the shortest pos¬ 
sible time. 
