Greenville, Ohio, Jan. 22, 1904.
To the Editor:
—I believe that the reasoning in your editorial on "Depressant Drugs and Sudden Deaths" (The Journal, Jan. 16, p. 177), is at fault when you say that "a portion of the decrease in the number of sudden deaths from heart disease to population, has been ascribed definitely—and with considerable plausibility—to a certain cause," which, in substance, you say is that, owing to steps taken by the Board of Health of New York City to prove that a certain coal-tar product was being adulterated by the addition or substitution of acetanilid, and owing to threatened exposure and prosecution the substitution had abated to the extent of reducing the death rate from heart disease from the ratio of 1.34 in a thousand in 1902 to 1.28 per thousand in 1903. It seems more plausible to ascribe this decrease in mortality to the awakening of