Abstract
This section looks back to some ground-breaking contributions to public health, reproducing them in their original form and adding a commentary on their significance from a modern perspective. To complement the theme of this month’s issue, Mukund Uplekar & Mario C Raviglione review a paper by Halfdan Mahler on tuberculosis programmes in developing countries that was published in the Bulletin of the International Union against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease (1966;37:77-82). The paper is reproduced here in full.