THE FRIENDLY ARCTIC 411 



not fall from that time until about Christmas in 1912, three months 

 after I got back to civilization but five or six months after I had 

 begun to eat the ordinary mixed civilized diet and live in general 

 in the ordinary civilized way. On the present expedition my hair 

 stopped falling out sometime during the winter of 1913-14 and 

 did not begin again until I was convalescent from typhoid at 

 Herschel Island in the winter of 1917-18. So far as I can judge 

 I have a better head of hair now, fifteen years after, than I had 

 when I first went North in 1906. 



It seems not unlikely that the interference with circulation 

 caused by a tight hatband, as is generally believed in civilization, 

 has something to do with the falling out of the hair. In the North 

 I never wear a hat and I cease wearing one as soon as I reach any 

 place where going bareheaded does not expose one to annoying 

 attention or comment. Even in the coldest weather of winter I 

 frequently throw back the hood of my coat, wearing it so that 

 it corresponds to a collar rather than a cap, and on very mild days 

 I go entirely bareheaded, finding that the hair is sufficient pro- 

 tection for everything but the ears. I never wear a cap of any 

 sort underneath the Eskimo-style hood although that is the cus- 

 tom in the semi-civilized portions of Alaska, such as the vicinity of 

 Nome, where white men have universally adopted modified Eskimo 

 clothing. 



Another explanation that suggests itself and is in line with the 

 modern vitamine theories is that the high percentage of under- 

 done and raw flesh foods eaten by us in the North may have some- 

 thing to do with stopping the falling out of hair. I have noticed 

 in my own case that tooth decay which had begun before I went 

 North has advanced less rapidly up there than it does in civilization. 

 This may be due to a difference in the composition of the saliva 

 and the different chemical condition of the mouth through the 

 absence of any decaying carbohydrates. But it has been shown 

 that a diet deficient in vitamines will cause rapid tooth decay in 

 guinea pigs. It seems not unreasonable even to suppose that the 

 high percentage of vitamines or some similar factor in the northern 

 diet may be the explanation perhaps of both the slow decay of 

 teeth and the improved condition of the scalp. 



On October 15th I secured from Illun against the rather insistent 

 opposition of his wife a valuable bit of the sort of secret informa- 

 tion which is now carefully hidden by most Eskimos from mission- 

 aries or other white men, and which in the minds of the Eskimos is 

 gradually taking on the character of our old beliefs in witchcraft. 



