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To the Editor of the Journal:
Dear Sir.
—Recently the question of the death-rate of pneumonic fever has come up in your Journal. The statements of Dr. Hart (Journal, Oct. 10) regarding the former frightful and now insignificant mortality attending this disease are but the echo of the words of many other writers everywhere. I have met them over and over again, and have always recognized their harmful nature, and consider your editorial in The Journal of October 31st timely and to the point.I have collected statistics of 170,692 cases of pneumonic fever, and of these 29,653 died; a mortality of 17.3 per cent. Excluding the 42,467 cases from the German army, with a death-rate of only 3 per cent.—regarding the worth of which I have doubts—and we have 128,225 cases, of which 28,129 were fatal; a death rate of 21.9 per cent. This I regard as being not