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suffering from trachoma. As this disease is always transmitted from the trachomatous to the healthy individual; consequently, if persons suffering from trachoma are discovered amongst the immigrants on arrival at Salina Cruz, persons similarly affected must also have been on board on the departure of the vessel from the Port of Hongkong. This single fact is sufficient to prove that the examination conducted by Dr. Grone was not so scrupulously exhaustive as the complainants appear to imagine.
Before proceeding further it is necessary to define the interest displayed by Mexico on the subject of trachoma.
This disease has probably existed in Mexico, but it is of such rare occurrence that only specialists were cognizant of its presence. Amongst the generality of practitioners it was totally unknown to the extent that the very existence of the disease was doubted, and in any case much incredulity existed as to the possibility of its ready transmission on the high table lands of our country. It was necessary for a distinguished Mexican Oculist to discover a slight epidemic of trachoma in the Correctional School in order to awaken public interest in this disease, and give rise to a series of discussions which took place at the Academy of Medicine in this Capital. If the oculists were opposed to one another in respect to certain etiological details, they were unanimous in the opinion that the entrance into this Republic of persons suffering from this disease should be prohibited, because it is especially liable to spread rapidly amongst the poorer classes, who live huddled together and disregard the most elementary principles of hygiene.
Seeing that a large proportion of our population consists of such people it was necessary to adopt special measures to prevent a hitherto almost unknown disease from becoming endemic in Mexico. In order to form an idea of the danger which threatens the Mexican Republic if we freely admit into the country trachomatous persons from abroad, it must be borne in mind that there are 30,000,000 such persons in the World; that trachoma is highly contagious, for, in order to become infected with the disease, it is sufficient to have wiped the face with a towel which
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