摘要：This is the third edition of what is essentially a text book written for the instruction and guidance of the Health Officer and the Public Health Nurse. The first edition appeared in 1941 and the authors point out in the preface of this third edition that there has been so much "communicable disease control" in the intervening twelve years that the need for such a book is now diminishing, and diminishing fast. This is manifest in their statement that "significant developments have brought about an unprecedented decline in the toll of infectious disease. Today these diseases are responsible for less than 7 per cent of the deaths in the United States. . ." But they add later: "we must be equally on our guard lest pride turns into complacence." And it is on this later theme that the new text has been composed.
