414 BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 



small, and consisted principally of patent purgative preparations ; a 

 small quantity of quinine and tincture of the chloride of iron was found. 

 In this dilemma the medical and surgical outfit of the Albatross was 

 drawn on as far as stores could be spared. I was told that no physi- 

 cian had ever resided in the island, and that sometimes the people, when 

 very much in need of professional advice, go up to Saint Andrews, or even 

 to Colon ; but only a few can afibrd to do this, as the trading schooners 

 charge heavily for a passage. The island seems to have been singularly 

 free from epidemics of all kinds. No vaccination has been practiced for 

 years, and yet there has not been a single case of variola introduced, 

 notwithstanding the commercial relations existing with Colon, where 

 the disease is not at all uncommon. I urged upon several of them the 

 importance of vaccination, for should the disease ever once get a foothoM 

 its ravages would be great. Unfortunately the Albatross was without 

 virus at the time, otherwise I would have been allowed to vaccinate 

 many. It may be that they are protected to some extent against vari- 

 ola and yellow fever by the negro element running through many of 

 them. 



This island presents an excellent field for professional work for well 

 qualified medical missionaries, or for a young practitioner, who, during 

 a residence here for a year or two, would gain a far more extensive per- 

 sonal 'experience than he could, as a rule, hope to gain at home in a much 

 greater length of time. The place is easily reached, at frequent inter- 

 vals, by trading schooners from Colon. 



The following enumeration of diseases will give an idea of the nature 

 of the cases which I saw during my visit to this interesting island: 

 Febris intermittens and remittens, adynamia, diabetes, lumbago, rheu- 

 matismus (articular and muscular), anaemia, senectus, epilepsia, hysteria, 

 neuralgia (facial and intercostal), cataracta, conjunctivitis, ptrygium, 

 hypertrophia cordis, pal])itatio, asthma (catarrhus, bronchial, and nasal, 

 acute and chronic), phthisis, pleuritis (with purulent effusion), ascites, 

 congest io hepatis, ccmstipatio (acute and chronic), fistula in ano, pro- 

 lapus ani, splenitis (acute) ; also one case of chronic enlargement of 

 spleen, vermes (lumbricoids, common), gonorrhoea, phymosis, necrosis 

 (of ribs and of bones of foot and leg), eczema, ulcers (leg and foot), vul- 

 nus laceratum (almost entire scalp had been torn from head by ma- 

 chinery of a sugar-mill), ammorrhcea, menorrhagia, prolapsus uteri, 

 lacerati cervix uteri, ante and retro flexures of uterus, ovarian tumor, 

 lucorrhcea (very common). The amount of venereal disease in the 

 island is very small, only three cases in all being seen, and these were 

 in men who had contracted the disease elsewhere. 



Fish Commission Steamer Albatross, 



Kexj West, Fla., April 16, 1884. 



