attention to this vital
subject.

The sections of the cities inhabited by Negroes are generally the most
unsanitary. The house in which the average Negro family lives is
poorly built and too small. Frequently old houses are set aside as too
far gone for any except Negro tenants. In many instances these
dilapidated houses contain germs of disease which it is practically
impossible for the young and the feeble to withstand. The food, fuel,
clothing and general comforts of a family thus housed are
insufficient. Food plays too large a part in the havoc made by death
among Negroes. In many instances, there is great intemperance in both
eating and drinking. With another large class there is actual scarcity
of food and that, too, often of poor quality. Add to this,
irregularity of meals and poor cooking and one can not wonder at the
low state of health nor even at the excessive mortality.

One of the most serious phases of ignorance is criminal carelessness
in regard to nutrition. Cooking is that part of household work which
almost every woman undertakes and very few understand, and herein lies
the foundation of disease.

The long death-roll among Negroes contains an excessive number of
infants. Careful investigation shows that this slaughter of innocents
is due in large measure to improper feeding. Some mothers must be away
from their babies earning bread and shelter. Others leave their little
ones for less worthy and less honorable purposes. Others neglect their
offspring because they have a fancied or cultivated dislike of
children. It is a sad day for a people when happy motherhood
declines. Man has devised successful substitutes for natural food for
babies, but these should be used only when the best good of all
concerned can be subserved thereby. Nature's ways are wisest and best,
and parents must try to walk in those ways if they would have their
children have life and have it abundantly.

Far be it from us here to attempt a technical discussion of
tuberculosis, but in plain simple language, let us cite a few facts in
regard to lung diseases among Negroes.

The oft repeated statement that the Negro slave did not have
consumption, cannot be verified, for lack of authentic records on the
subject. The Negro free, however, is dying of consumption and kindred
diseases in appallingly large numbers.

Many theories in regard to consumption have been exploded, but it is
acknowledged by all, to be an infectious disease. A