“Save the babies!” was the cry of the last decade. “Save the middle-aged!” will be the cry of this. The real race suicide is not in the insufficiency of births, but in the inadequate knowledge of the diseases of maturity, and in the inadequate care and prevention of these diseases. Deaths from arterio-sclerosis, apoplexy, kidney affections, stomach disorders, and cancer are continuously on the increase, and have been for ten years past. Of the 75,000 persons that died in New York in 1911, 17,000 died of “middle-age complaints.” The intense life of New Yorkers, their intemperance in eating, drinking, and working, contributes chiefly to the increase in the middle-age death-rate. However, Bright’s disease, diabetes, and cancer are not more a mystery than diphtheria was before antitoxin was discovered. Bacteriology has its fields of further effort well laid out in those directions. It is the contention of those that give their lives to the study of the subject that “public health is a purchasable commodity.” The struggle, then, is between the death-rate and the dollar rate. Contribute more money to the cause of public health, and the death-rate will go down. Forty thousand babies were saved in 1910 at an average cost of eighteen dollars. It would have cost more to bury them, as the cheapest sort of funeral costs twenty-five dollars. The appropriation for the care of the public health in New York is not niggardly; it is larger than in most cities. Still, it is not enough. Where the health officers ask for a dollar and a half, they get a dollar. The excuse is that the rest of the desired money is needed to improve parks and streets, for the police and fire departments, for the city government, the water-fronts, etc. Besides, the people of this city are absolutely obliged to spend about $100,000,000 a year on automobiles, candy, theaters, alcoholic drinks, tobacco, diamonds, and such other urgent needs of life. What is left over, after those necessities are provided for, goes toward the preservation of health!