TUBERCULOSIS IN THE NEGRO.

Abstract

Tuberculosis was a rare disease among the slaves in the southern states, yet, after a little more than a quarter of a century, it causes more deaths among the emancipated negroes than all the other infectious diseases. The negro death rate from tuberculosis is more than three times that of the whites from the same disease. These statements, as startling to some as they are true, announce the motive which induced me to select for my theme on this occasion, "Tuberculosis in the Negro"; and if I can be the means of inciting any of you to consider the causes of this enormous mortality from that disease in the negro race and the measures to be taken for their relief, the objects of this paper will have been attained. From the best information which I can gather, tuberculosis is unknown among the savage tribes in the interior of Africa.