In the Italian quarter this species still preys upon the superstitious fears of some of the people, and the secrecy involved in his “treatment” makes permanent riddance extremely difficult. The people on the whole, however, give remarkable response to the “American” custom of employing a regular practitioner and the visiting nurse. * * * * * In this country, unfortunately, we have little data on morbidity. Statisticians desirous of obtaining figures for study have found interesting material in our files, and it has been possible to make comparison of the results of hospital and home treatment. Those who are familiar with the discussion upon papers presented by children’s specialists in recent conferences on the saving of child life have had their attention drawn to the disadvantage of institutional treatment. Discussion of this subject is recent, and the laity do not always know that certain complications incident to the hospital care of children are obviated by keeping them at home. Among these are cross-infections, while the high mortality among infants in hospitals has long been recognized and deplored as unavoidable. We soon found that children’s diseases, particularly those of brief duration, lent themselves most advantageously to home treatment. Our records show that in 1914 the Henry Street staff cared for 3,535 cases of pneumonia of all ages, with a mortality rate of 8.05 per cent. For purposes of comparison four large New York hospitals gave us their records of pneumonia during the same period. Their combined figures totaled 1,612, with a mortality rate of 31.2 per cent. Among children under two—the age most susceptible to unfortunate termination of this disorder—the mortality rate from pneumonia in one hospital was 51 per cent., and the average of the four was 38 per cent., while among those of a corresponding age cared for by our nurses it was 9.3 per cent. [Illustration] Doctors and nurses highly trained in hospital routine are apt to be hospital propagandists until they learn by experience that there is justification for the resistance, on the part of mothers, to the removal of their children to institutions, and that even in homes which, at first glance, it seems impossible to organize in accordance with sickroom standards, the little patients’ chances for recovery are better than when sent away. Diseases requiring climatic or operative treatment, or peculiar apparatus, must usually be excluded from home care. In a letter written to a friend more than twenty years ago I find this account of one of our patients: