In the North Atlantic States, in 1910, forty-eight per cent of the people lived in small towns and country districts, comprising ninety-nine per cent of the land; and fifty-two per cent lived in cities of 300,000 and over, comprising the remaining area of one per cent. The lure of the great city, a theme saturated with tragedy, has been written of many times. Frederick L. Hoffman, actuary of the Prudential Life Insurance Company, in a recent pamphlet, points out that longevity and diminished liability to disease are decidedly favored in the country. The typhoid fever mortality rate is higher in the country than in the city, but the difference is much less than has often been assumed. Altho the mortality from malaria has been higher, and in many places no doubt still is so, mosquito elimination has greatly reduced the number of cases of malaria in rural districts. While influenza, dysentery, apoplexy, paralysis, heart-disease, and peritonitis also seem more common in the country, some of these are diseases of old age, and the difference is undoubtedly due in great measure to the larger proportion of old persons in the country, the young having migrated to the city. On the other hand, the causes of death more common in the city are venereal diseases, cancer, alcoholism, meningitis, enteritis, bronchitis, the pneumonias, tuberculosis, cirrhosis of the liver, appendicitis, Bright's disease, and death from violence. It is hardly to be hoped that emphasis on the greater healthfulness of the country will influence any one who is determined to enter city life. No appeal of this or any other kind has hitherto13proved effective in the history of civilization. But it is encouraging to the dweller in the country to know that his chances for long and healthy life are better than those of his brother in the city.— Journal of the American Medical Association.