Observations by Col. S. Lyle Cummine.
640
Dr. H. H. Scott's analysis of 200 consecutive cases
of death from tuberculosis, with special reference to
the disease as mat with in children in Hong Kong, has
been read with the deepest interest and is regarded as
a most valuable contribution to the subject of the
modes of origin of the disease in human beings,
strongly recommended that the Report be published in full
It 18
: in such a form as to make its contente available for study
by those scientists who are engaged in similar obsarva-
tions in Europe and America, While much of the work is
of a kind that will be especially valuable to those
engaged in research, there are certain practical suggestions
of immediate importance,
I have read Dr. Scott's account of the housing con-
ditione and social enviroment of the Chinese population
of Hong Kong with much interest and am in entire agreeme.it
with his conclusions that these conditions are such as to
favour the rapid spread of tuberculosis, I gather that
Dr. Scott has seen no reason to regard the adult Chinese
population as especially susceptible to tuberculosis and
that he prefers to attribute the nigh mortality from this
disease to the environmental and social conditions mentioned
above.
A study of the incidence and mortality from tuber-
culosis amongst the men of the Chinese Labour Corps in
France led the medical authorities of the British Forces to
the view that these labourers had relatively low powers of
resistance to tuberculous infection, even when the environ-
mental conditions were above the average. I am therefore
inclined to lay the greatest possible stress on the need