THE
CHEM AW A
AM ERICAN
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it was rare. There appears to be little reason to doubt that all infections
diseases tend to diminish in virulence with successive generations and
centuries—some more rapidly than others. A race gradually acquires
an immunity or resisting power to a disease. The history of measles—
a comparatively mild disease with 11s—shows it to be of frightful mor
tality when attacking people unaccustomed to it. Until recently it has
been a plague to many of the Indian tribes in Alaska. In other non-
caucasian races where the disease has existed for centures the mortal
ity is not nearly so great even where the environment is much worse
and physical strength much less.
Manner of living is undoubtedly a causal factor. Although some
of the Indians have homes as good as their white neighbors, far too
often their houses are far from being sanitary. Particularly in the
north during the cold season a large family will cook, eat and sleep in
one over-heated, unventilated room; a member of the family having tu
berculosis spits on the earth floor where the sputum dries and is pul
verized and is soon floating in the air to be breathed into the lungs ot
the others; perhaps two or three young children play about on the
floor. No attempt is made to prevent other members of the family
from contracting the disease. Bed clothing becomes very dirty and
badly infected and household refuse is uot properly disposed of; the
food is insufficient in quantity, improperly kept and lacking in variety.
Under such conditions a poorly nourished body, lacking in resisting
power, becomes an easy prey to this disease. Proper early treatment
is neglected. Many will visit the agency or school physician and ask
for medicine for a cold; an examination discloses the true nature of the
complaint, but the correctness of the physician’s diagnosis is doubted
and his advice unheeded. In many of these cases the disease would
be arrested if the physician’s instructions were followed.
On some reservations the Indians believe the disease is caused by an
evil spirit and the Indian medicine man is sought to drive away the
spirit by chants, beating of tom toms and rattling of gourds.
In many cases the course, duration and clinical features of the
disease are quite different in the Indian thari in the Caucasian. Many
times an adult brave will succumb after a duration of two or three
months. Ordinarily the disease runs its course in the adults in nine or
ten months while in children the time is much shorter. In these par
ticular cases the symptoms noticed are fatigue, shortness of breath,
pallor, rapid pulse, rapid consolidation and destruction of lung tissue
and delirium—the patient finally dying of heart failure from sepsis.
Observing the destructiveness of the disease among the Indians, and
realizing the ineffectiveness of an educat'on that failed to raise the
physical standard, a campaign against the disease was begun. At pres-