but rather the number of cases of sickness from
transmissible diseases. The cost and danger to society from preventable
diseases, such as typhoid, diphtheria, scarlet fever, measles, are
imperfectly represented by the number of deaths. Medical skill could
gradually reduce death rates in the face of increasing prevalence of
infectious disease. With few exceptions, only those patients who refuse
to follow instructions will die of measles, diphtheria, or smallpox.
The scarlet-fever patient who recovers and goes to church or school
while "peeling" can cause vastly more sickness from scarlet fever than
a patient who dies. Dr. W. Leslie Mackenzie, who has recently written
_The Health of the School Child_, said ten years ago, while health
officer of Leith:

Death is the ultimate and most severe injury that any disease can
inflict, but short of death there may be disablement, permanent or
temporary, loss of wages, loss of employment, loss of education,
increase of home labor, increase of sickness outlays, increase of
worry, anxiety and annoyance, disorganization of the household,
general impairment of social efficiency.

The best guarantee against such loss, the best protection of health,
and the most essential element of vital statistics is prompt, complete
record of cases of sickness. Statistics of sickness are confined to
sickness from transmissible diseases, because we have not yet arrived
at the point where we recognize the state's right to require
information, except when the sick person is a menace to the health of
other persons.

The annual report of a board of health should give as clear a picture
of a community's health during the past week or past quarter as the
ergograph gives of the pupils mentioned on page 126. As ragged, rapidly
shortening lines show nervousness and depleted vitality, so charts and
diagrams can be made to show the needless waste of infant life during
the summer months, the price paid for bad ventilation in winter time,
when closed windows cause the sickness-and-death line from diphtheria
and scarlet fever to shoot up from the summer level. In cities it is
now customary for health boards to report weekly the number of deaths
from transmissible diseases. Health officers will gladly furnish facts
as to cases of sickness, if citizens request them. Newspapers will
gladly publish such information if any one will take the pains to
supply it. Wherever newspapers have published this informa