It is now generally conceded that infection with the tubercle bacillus is, in the majority of cases, an incident of early life, and that, regardless of the time of development of clinical symptoms, tuberculosis is, in its origin at least, essentially a disease of childhood. Unfortunately, however, the recognition of this fact has failed to effect, as yet, any wide-spread movement directed toward the prevention of this early infection, which is the fundamental problem of the antituberculosis campaign. This is not to say that there are not numerous agencies dealing with many different elements of the problem, but the sum total of their work is pitifully small when compared with the tremendous amount of effort and money expended in combating the disease in adults, much of which expenditure is, and will continue to be, wasted until it is diverted to basic preventive work among children.
It is the purpose of