" " 1855-1859[1].. .. .. 2,647
" " 1861-1865 .. .. .. 2,528
" " 1866-1870 .. .. .. 2,449
" " 1871-1875 .. .. .. 2,219
" " 1876-1880 .. .. .. 2,042

" " 1881-1885 .. .. .. 1,830
" " 1886-1890 .. .. .. 1,635
" " 1891-1895 .. .. .. 1,462
" " 1896-1900 .. .. .. 1,322
" " 1901-1905 .. .. .. 1,218
" " 1906-1910 .. .. .. 1,106
-------------------------------------------------------------
[1] For statistics relating to period, 1850-1859, see Registrar-
General's 34th Report, p. 249. For years, 1861-1880, see 48th Report,
Table 27. For later period, see 73rd Report, p. 21.

This table is very significant. The death-rate of consumption in
England for the year 1853 was 2,984 per 1,000,000 population. From
that year, down to the five-year period, 1881-1885, there was a steady
decline in the mortality of this disease, amounting to a fraction less
than 39 per cent. On March 24, 1882, Koch announced his discovery.
The fall of the death-rate from 1881-1885 to 1906-1910, was almost
precisely the same--a fraction over 39 per cent. NOW WHAT WERE THE
CAUSES WHICH INDUCED THE CONSTANTLY DECREASING MORTALITY FROM
CONSUMPTION DURING THAT EARLIER PERIOD, WHEN THE NAME OF KOCH WAS
UNKNOWN? Is it conceivable that they suddenly became inoperative
thirty years ago? Is it not more than probable that the chief reason
why the "great white plague" has steadily and almost uniformly
decreased during sixty years, not only in England, but probably in all
civilized lands has been the increased recognition of the value of
sanitary laws and of personal hygiene? No one questions the importance
of the discovery of Koch; it has given Science the knowledge that a
definite enemy exists, whose insidious invasion she strives to
prevent, and whose ultimate conquest may one day be accomplished--more
by prevention than by cure. But when a medical writer ascribes the
decrease in mortality of this disease to the discovery of Koch in
1882, and makes no reference to the steady fall in the death-rate
which went on for a quarter of a century before that discovery was
known, what is to be said of his fidelity to scientific truth? Is this
the ideal of fairness which the labo