There is nowadays a general conviction, not only amongst the medical profession but also amongst a large proportion of the educated public, that tuberculosis is a curable disease. It may exist in a mild and incipient form in many persons regarded as healthy, and, if properly treated in its early stages, with due regard not only to the actual disease in the bodily organism, but also to the healthy environment of the individual, it is almost certainly conquerable. Not many years ago, however, this happy belief did not obtain. A person “in consumption,” especially if “consumption was in the family,” was regarded as being in a very serious and almost hopeless condition. The patient, shielded from fresh air, inappropriately and insufficiently fed, often succumbed, supplying one more example to support the unscientific conception then prevalent of the inheritance of the disease. But such conditions are passing away. In our medical schools and hospitals special attention is paid to the diagnosis and treatment of early forms of tuberculosis; the importance of preventive measures is emphasised; the influence of the patient’s environment in favouring or combating the disease is explained; and the future medical practitioner is afforded frequent opportunities for personal investigation of tubercular patients. The old ideas about the “inheritance of consumption” are greatly modified. No longer is a patient’s disease explained as “in the family” and left at that. Preventive measures, early treatment, an attempt justly to appreciate the relative influence of heredity and environment are the watchwords of the modern medical attack upon tuberculosis.