THE BACTERIOLOGY OF ACUTE INFECTIONS OF THE RESPIRATORY TRACT IN CHILDREN, WITH ESPECIAL REFERENCE TO INFLUENZA

One of the most striking changes in the mortality figures of the last twenty-five years is in the increase in the deaths from acute respiratory diseases, especially bronchitis and pneumonia. This has affected all ages, infants and young children, as well as adults. As respects infants, the mortality from respiratory diseases in New York touched the high point in 1902, since which time it has fallen but little. This increase is in striking contrast with the steady decline in acute infections of the gastro-intestinal tract, these having fallen almost as steadily as those of the respiratory tract have risen. Thus twenty-five years ago the deaths under one year from acute intestinal diseases numbered 3,300; the same year those of bronchitis and pneumonia numbered only 1,350. In 1902 the deaths from acute respiratory diseases were greater by nearly one hundred than those from acute intestinal diseases the following year. Nowhere