her consequence is that, in the United
States, while the death-rate in the early years of life (when infectious
diseases do most of the killing) has been decreasing, the death-rate in
later life (when the chronic diseases do most of the killing) is
increasing. In Sweden, on the other hand, where individual hygiene is
more generally applied, the death-rate is declining at all times of
life. (See "Signs of Increase of the Degenerative Diseases,"
SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES.)

Both public and individual hygiene are being invoked in the fight
against tuberculosis, a disease at once infectious and chronic, due to
germs and to wrong methods of living.

[Sidenote: Cooperation Necessary]

No matter how thoroughly an individual attempts to care for his own
health, he will find it almost impossible to avoid infections, at
times, without the organized help of the community in which he lives. A
man may do his best to keep his windows open, to breathe deeply, to eat
hygienically, to hold his activities within the limits of overfatigue,
to screen his house against flies and leave no tin cans about his
kitchen door to breed mosquitoes; but if the city in which he lives has
no good air for him to breathe, if his city's water supply is
contaminated, if neighboring malarial swamps are not drained or covered
with oil, if flies alight on the food before it comes to his own house,
if the food contains disease germs or dangerous preservatives, or if his
next-door neighbor visits him and leaves infection behind him, mere
personal defenses will hardly be adequate.

Even in so private a matter as moving the bowels, sometimes the fault
lies partly with circumstances beyond the control of the individual.
Unfortunately in most of our cities and small towns "Comfort Stations"
are rare or unknown, and when they are available they are often in such
an insanitary condition as to be a source of danger through the spread
of communicable disease. Constipation, as we have seen, is a far more
serious matter than it is sometimes thought to be.

It is therefore incumbent on the individual to contribute his share to
the hygienic work of society as a whole, in particular to take an active
interest in health legislation and administration. A man can not live to
the best advantage in a life isolated from all social obligations, any
more than could Robinson Crusoe, who was unable to launch his canoe in
the ocean, after he had been at great pains to construct it, bec