McClure's Magazine, Vol. XXXI, No. 3, July 1908

e that nation has not yet attained to any scientific method of treating the subject. Patriotism may wince; but let us not haughtily demand any explanation from our sneering little neighbor. Explanations might be embarrassing. For the taunt is well founded.

[Illustration: DR. GEORGE W. GOLER

HEALTH OFFICER OF ROCHESTER, NEW YORK, WHO REFUSES CHILDREN CERTIFICATES TO WORK IN FACTORIES, UNLESS THE APPLICANTS ARE IN SOUND PHYSICAL CONDITION]

Is it strange that, having no basis in national statistics, our local health figures "speak a varied language"? We have no standards even of death on which to base comparisons. But a dead man is a dead man, isn't he, whether in Maine or California? Not necessarily and unqualifiedly. In some Southern cities he may be a "dead colored man," hence thrown out of the figures on the "white death rate" which we are asked to regard as the true indication of health conditions. In New Orleans, until recently, he might be a "death in county hospital," and as such not