individual until the virulence of the disease has decreased, it will better that individual’s chances for recovery, and so is worth the trouble. _General Closing Orders_ In most large cities orders were issued closing churches and theatres and prohibiting public gatherings of all kinds. In New York these places of public gathering were not closed, and it has been pointed out, as an argument against closing orders in the future, that the death rate there was less than in Boston, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, etc. Copeland (49), of the New York Board of Health, stated that the unventilated picture shows were closed, but that the theatres were used as places of public instruction. New York’s relatively low death rate was difficult of explanation, but it is very certain that it had nothing to do with the fact that closing orders were not in vogue. If it were possible to obtain the figures, it would be interesting, indeed, to compare the death rate from influenza among New York’s theatre-attending public during the epidemic with the death rate of the community in general. Generally speaking, any unnecessary public gatherings are inadvisable during any epidemic. While our exact knowledge of the mode of transmission of influenza is incomplete, it is unquestionably a contact disease. People who have been exposed and who have not yet contracted the disease are known to have transmitted it to a third person. A certain number of people from infected homes will attend public gatherings as long as they are able, for it is impossible to get together any large group of persons all of whom are going to play fair. It is true that these meeting places may be used in a measure to allay panic and to instruct the public in health measures, but there are many efficient and far less dangerous methods of accomplishing the same results. Vaughan in discussing assemblies in large halls mentioned that in a hall at Camp Forest, which held 9,000 people, the individuals had a space of about 16 inches laterally between their noses. He pointed out that if many of them were talking, coughing or sneezing, the air contamination would soon become so great that it could make little difference whether there was a roof over the building or not. He emphasized the fact that it is just as possible to crowd men in the open as it is indoors. Ventilation is undoubtedly an important factor, but it cannot correct overcrowding. As far as the educational value of the public gatherings was concerned, it may be observed that regular attendants of theatres and moving-picture houses during the year of 1918 had become quite accustomed to appeals regarding all sorts of public movements from speakers who appeared between the acts, or pictures, but that the closing of these places threw a wholesome scare into them which made them pay far closer attention to prophylactic measures than almost anything that could have happened. “Object-lessons are always superior