Vitamin C in the prophylaxis and therapy of infectious diseases.

Tuberculosis. At the beginning of the 19th century this disease caused one-fifth of all deaths in western Europe. In London the rate was even higher—30 per cent. In the large American cities the death rate at that time was about 400 per 100,000 of population. To illustrate the rate of decline in England the figures for the city of Ipswich in ten-year averages from 1840 to 1940 are as follows: 393, 340, 320, 305, 268, 217, 183, 151, 100 and 69, indicating an almost even decline throughout. These figures are closely paralleled for a corresponding period in Massachusetts, in which an evenly graded reduction in tuberculosis mortality from 444 to 36 occurred between 1859 and 1939. The change in age incidence has also been very marked. Fifty years ago the peak of incidence was in the third decade of life, with a rather high rate in infancy and childhood. Today the older age groups, 50 to 60 years, are mostly affected, and the early age groups are almost completely exempt.