Diseases of the Chest

erative in the enforcement of the law. As a result the examination has fallen into the province of the public health authorities, and the income therefrom has been lost to the private doctor. In many cities the examination has actually been abandoned because of the laxity with which the profession has carried on this work. Compensation for this examination has apparently not been enough to interest the conscientious physician, or the physician has taken the fee and filled in the necessary blank after a half-hearted examination. A glance at the pharynx and a casual glance at the external genital organs have apparently been considered an examination which would reveal contagious or infectious disease. Venereal diseases are not transmitted in food. This is a plea for careful examination of every food handler. If the examiner does nothing else he should take the necessary few minutes to carefully examine the worker's chest. Tuberculosis is one disease which can be spread from one person to another in food, or on utensils at restaurants, or soda fountains, etc. Obviously the discovery of active disease is the discovery of a possible source of infection. How many such sources have been allowed to dispense food to the unsuspecting public behind a lax food-handler's certificate is a problem for a mathematician. That such conditions can be prevented must certainly be obvious even to the laity. The medical profession today has been criticized from many angles. It deplores such criticism, and it deplores its present status—that of being on the very verge of a change in the old order of things. May we be so bold as to suggest that the profession is responsible to a great extent for its present circumstances? May we further suggest that we have failed in one