A Study of the Incidence of Tuberculosis in Calcutta as Evidenced by the Von Pirquet Cuti-Reaction

adoption of suitable preventive measures have considerably brought down the incidence of the disease within recent years in several countries in Europe. The importance of the study is now being felt by the leading members of our profession who think about the future of our race, for this fell disease invalidates or carries away individuals when they are most likely to be useful to society (i.e., youths). In carrying out von Pirquet's test to ascertain the incidence of the disease we were greatly helped by Col. D. P. Goil, I.M.S., for kindly placing at our disposal the District Jail. We are also grateful to Dr. A. C. Ukil of the Clinical Research Association for supplying us with samples of tuberculin and antigens for the compliment-fixation tests. We have used two kinds of tuberculin in our investigations, namely (1) Tuberculin Diagnose of Behringwarke, and (2) Tuberculin Brute of the Institut Pasteur, Paris. These appeared to us after several trials to have no differences as regards the results. The method employed was the standard method of putting a drop of tuberculin on the skin of the forearm, with a drop of carbolised saline as control, after previously cleaning the part first with soap and water and then with rectified spirit. A few scratches were then made through the drops with a sharp bayonetshaped needle. Care was always taken to prevent the appearance of blood?the idea being to just open out the lymph spaces. We have found that this method of doing the test