The International Congress on Tuberculosis was opened on Wednesday in
Berlin. London, it appears, has the next lowest mortality from consumption after Naples and Buenos Ayres, the highest rate being shown by Moscow, St. Petersburg, Vienna, and Budapest. If, however, all lung diseases are included, very different results are exhibited, for Naples is then bracketed with Moscow as showing the highest average, Hamburg, Berlin, and Amsterdam occupying the places of honour, and London standing next. In regard to countries, England, Belgium, Scandinavia, and Italy have the lowest, and Russia and Austria the highest, mortality from consumption. Thus in Russia the death-rate is nearly 4,000 per million, while in England it is only 1,358. Including all lung diseases, Norway and Switzerland are the healthiest countries, England standing fourth and Italy and Russia lowest, the last having a death-rate of 8,000 per million as against England's 4,508. Dr. Brouardel, the French delegate, declared that terrible though the ravages of tuberculosis were—in France one-fourth of the entire mortality is due to this cause—it was nevertheless the most curable of all chronic maladies. What doctor would have ventured to say that twenty years ago?
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