chial schools in the city and many in the county were visited
by a special worker who talked to the children and teachers.
Public health nurses in training received special courses in tu-
herculosis, as did the medical students of the University of
Pittsburgh. The county organizer visited 130 districts in
Allegheny county and helped them with their health prob-
tems. The health library served many people in the commu-
nity as well as giving daily aid to the Tuberculosis League’s
own staff.
As a result of twenty years’ continuous struggle against
tuberculosis, the mortality rate has been reduced in Pitts-
burgh from 146.2 per 100,000 population in 1908, to 73.3 in
1927, which means a saving of many hundreds of lives in this
locality. Much ‘work still remains to be done, however, as
the disease is preventable,and through health education and
co-operation on the part of the public, this great scourge
which last year killed over 1000 in Greater Pittsburgh may be
wiped from the face of the earth.
UNITED STATES MARINE HOSPITAL
Pursuant to Act of Congress approved March 3, 1837, a
board of Army medical officers was designated by the Sec-
retary of War to select and recommend locations for Marine
Hospitals. These recommendations were followed, with the
exception that the hospital recommended for Wheeling, W.
Va., was built instead at Pittsburgh, Pa. The site for the
hospital in Pittsburgh was purchased in 1842 and was located
on the Ohio river below Allegheny City. Building was not
begun until 1845 and owing to the very small appropriation
available, it was soon expended and work was interrupted
until 1849. The building was completed in 1851. The
location was unfortunate and the property was sold in 1875.
The building had become dilapidated and unfit for the pur-
pose, and the location of a blast furnace on one side of the
grounds and a rolling mill on the other resulted in the hos-
pital being filled with smoke and soot, whichever way the
wind blew, and the noise was a great annoyance to the sick.
[t was proposed to utilize the proceeds of the sale of the prop-
erty toward the construction of a new hospital, of pavilion
