"Captain of All These Men of Death"

Book excerpt: At the beginning of the 20th century, Ireland was one of the very few developed countries to be experiencing a rise in tuberculosis mortality, which was rapidly declining in the rest of the British Isles. Jones (history, U. of Ulster at Jordanstown, Northern Ireland) traces the history of the disease from that point to the 1950s when mortality rates had fallen to a level commensurate with other developed countries. She explores the social and economic factors for the disparity, and examines if the history of the disease in Ireland can shed light on the nature of tuberculosis epidemics in general. Her conclusions, while not reducible to simple formulations, suggest that public health campaigns, demographics of urbanization, nutrition levels, and economic disparity are all factors that should be explored in epidemiological investigations of tuberculosis. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR