Dec. 24, 1920 Unless there should be an epidemic elsewhere in the state with the resultant danger of infection brought in from outside sources, it is not believed there will be many cases of influenza in Cadillac this year. This is the opinion of the City Health Officer, Dr. D. Ralston, who at the request of the State Health Department, took cultures of the throats of one hundred persons from different parts of the city and who has received a negative report on the cultures. In a letter to Dr. Ralston from C.C. Young, director of laboratories and assistant collaborating epidemiologist of the United States Public Health Service, it is explained that there were no infectious germs found in the Cadillac specimens. The letter says: "The one hundred cultures examined showed no definite bacteriology. There was no prevalence of the types of streptococci that are associated with acute respiratory infections. There is absolutely no similarity between the organisms recovered last year prior to the epidemic of influenza." Several representative cities in the state were selected by the state health officers for the purpose of making a survey of conditions and avoiding if possible a recurrence of the deadly flu. Health officers in these cities were asked to procure cultures of one hundred throats and the percentage of positive and negative analyses could thus be accurately ascertained. Dr. Ralston took cultures from 60 employees of the Acme Motor Truck plant, picked at random from the factory and representing many sections of the city. The remaining 40 were taken from throats of high school students, as being also representative individuals. The report from the state department is very gratifying, says Dr. Ralston and corroborated his earlier prediction that Cadillac was not harboring much dormant disease.