178 THE LAST CRUISE OF THE CARNEGIE 



was surrounded by a circle of native boys and girls who sang their 

 folk-songs. Captain Ault identified some of these songs as being 

 Tahitian and even Samoan. 



But the flies and mosquitoes did not keep a respectful distance, 

 as the singers did. The old navigator Schouten named Rairoa 

 "Vliegen Island," for the hordes of flies he encountered. He should 

 have called here first! However, the worst pest of all was a 

 little beetle that had the nasty habit of crawling into one's ears. 

 Frank Moline, one of our seamen, suffered the tortures of the 

 damned from this cause. 



During the afternoon Paul had clinics ashore, for the villages 

 have no physician among them. It was naturally impossible for 

 him to hand out any but the simplest remedies to these ignorant 

 people. There was no evidence that the people used native drugs 

 at the time of our visit. Several cases of serious disease like lep- 

 rosy, tuberculosis, and syphilis were found, but no treatment for 

 these could be considered in the few days of our visit. Almost 

 the whole town had the "seven-year itch;" so great bowls of sul- 

 phur ointment were distributed with directions for proper use — 

 directions which were certainly not followed, since it involved the 

 treatment of the whole village simultaneously, and a complete 

 change to fresh linen. The infants suffer terribly from eye-in- 

 fections carried from one to another by the hordes of flies. The 

 few lepers among the people have had a fine house built for them 

 some half-mile from Hangarao. They live there during the week; 

 but on Sundays entertain all their relatives from town in their 

 quarters. 



On his rounds through the village, Paul would single out two 

 or three natives as subjects for basal metabolism measurements. 

 They were brought aboard for supper, and would be put to bed 

 in the chart-room — a necessary preliminary to the experiments 

 made next morning. Basal metabolism is a measure of the rate 

 at which oxygen is consumed by the body when lying at rest. 

 Recent researches have hinted that one race may use oxygen at 

 a faster rate than another — live at a higher speed, physiologically. 

 Accordingly, the doctor had been supplied with a portable ap- 

 paratus for use on this cruise when opportunity offered. The in- 



