Tuberculosis is by no means a new public health problem in Colonial Territories: it has existed since the early days of British medical administration overseas. It has, however, assumed a much greater signif icance within recent years: it must now be regarded as one of the most pressing of all health problems and one which is likely to be extremely difficult to solve satisfactorily. This comparatively recent rise of tuberculosis in relative importance is often attributed to the fact that a considerable degree of mastery has been obtained over many of the major tropical and other endemic diseases, diseases which were absolute priorities if trade and industry were to prosper and, even at times if the communities were to survive. There is certainly some logical foundation for this somewhat defensive explanation of the swing of professional and public opinion, but it is not the whole answer. It is more correct to describe it as a sequel to economic and social advancement. As territories have become opened up and internal and external communications improved, there has been a much freer movement of the populations. With this has been associated a drift to industrial, and the more closely settled areas. There has, too, been an expansion of medical services leading to more frequent detection of cases in the earlier stages: increasing numbers of patients voluntarily seek medical attention and systematic case-finding surveys have disclosed many more. It is mainly these factors coupled with an increasing health consciousness which have led to the social effects of tuberculosis becoming more apparent, not only to the medical profession but to the public in general and those responsible for the good government of the territories in particular, It is certainly more than reasonable to expect that as the major tropical diseases are coming under control more funds and more staff should be available for the prevention and cure of tuberculosis. Yellow fever no longer constitutes a serious epidemic threat to Africa; malaria has been virtually eradicated from extensive areas and controlled in others; trypanosomiasis is now seldom found in epidemic form; treatment of leprosy is no longer the hopeless task it was; cholera, plague and typhus have yielded to modern methods of control and there are good grounds for expecting that mass campaigns will deal effectively with yaws. Still, these are only some of the many debilitating diseases to which special attention has had to be given in the past and even to maintain the standards already reached so far makes now, and will continue to make, a heavy call on departmental resources. In order to determine precisely the place that tuberculosis takes in the general pattern it will be helpful to examine a few representative sets of figures from different areas. For example, the numbers of cases of the most prevalent diseases treated in government hospitals in the Gold Coast during the five-year period I946-5o were: Yaws . . . . 600,000 Malaria . . . . 379,2oo Gonorrhoea .. 82,400 Hookworm .. 33,500 Schistosomiasis .. 20,500 Pulmonary tuberculosis . I 1,2oo In Tanganyika, representative of conditions generally in East Africa, the diseases causing the greatest mortality in government institutions during I954 were: Pneumonia (all forms) .. 532 deaths Malaria (all forms) .. 366 ,, Gastro-enteritis . . . . 280 , , Pulmonary tuberculosis.. 263 ,,