.. In a paper read before the Royal Statistical Society recently Dr. Bradford Hill, of the London School of Hygiene and Tropi
cal Bleiicine. discuAsed facte-s responsible. for the present uoiavourable death-rates from respiratory tuberculosis amongst young adults of this country.
It is well known that during the latter half of the nineteenth century the deathrates from this cause showed a vast imprOvement, and in this improvement young adults had their full share.
Since the turn of the century, however, young adults have not shared with other age groups the still further improvement that has been recorded.
Some observers believe that the fall in the total death-rate from tuberculosis has le,d to such a reduction of infection in the population at large that there is now less chance of a child receiving a small immunising dose early in life. A commonly accepted explanation implicates the changes in the home and working environment of young adults, especially females, who are, it is asserted, now exposed to a " strain and stress " of competitive wage-earning which they did not have to endure in Victorian days.