18 CRUISE OF STEAMER CORWIN IN THE ARCTIC OCEAN. 
No epidemics are mentioned, except one of gastric fever, the result of immoderate eating, 
which prevailed on Saint George’s Island. It yielded to treatment. The houses of this island are 
reported to be in a satisfactory condition, sanitary conditious being observed as far as possible, also 
order and cleanliness; and the Kashim (or club-house) comes in for favorable mention. 
On the Island of Saint Paul the regulations established for cleanliness are reported to have 
been generally obeyed. Inoculation (?) was generally carried out, and almost all the children were 
vaccinated except at Ikogmut Mission, where the natives refused to adopt this method of protee- 
tion; but it is stated that this obstinacy may be overcome by time or accidental circumstances 
such as the prevalence of an epidemic. 
A disease called the ‘‘ black measles” appeared at Kodiak and the adjoining islands in 1875, 
from which the Alaska Herald of August 3, 1875, reports the following deaths to July of that year: 
Kodiak 235-22 ese ee a rE ESE SSS OSE ee nS eee ee <ii2840 
Wood Island. ...-<<s25=s6 << 222 2e6 2-22 Sob t eae cee ee Res ey ee eer ara eee 50 
Atognak ape nwaae= ~= oe A oe a ea ee oe eae Sane eS 20 
Yelons 222-26 225 so< ce ene oes ose s ae en ee 10 
Baele: Tarpon tS ae eee a a a ee a 10 
"Potal 52 - w= asec - once Soe os eee en en eee wee ee ep eee ee ee 130 
The natives of the Pribylof Islands, being better housed than those on the Aleutian Islands, 
appear of late to have fared better as regards health than their more southern neighbors. The 
wonder is, though, after visiting these islands, that so little sickness exists among a population 
most of whom live but a few hundred yards away from the carcasses of thousands of seals in all 
stages of decomposition. On the island of Saint Paul, for instance, where the climate is as humid 
and disagreeable as possible, the carcasses of the 80,000 seals that are slaughtered yearly are left 
to decay in the open air in the immediate vicinity of the village, and the stench therefrom is any- 
thing but pleasant. One night the Corwin anchored under the lee of the island, about a mile off 
shore, and the stench was so great as to preclude sleep during the night. 
A stroll ashore on Saint Paul afforded a fine opportunity to study comparative anatomy, 
especially of the marine mammalia; for in addition to the millions of live seals to be seen hauled 
up on the rookeries, we walked through the green, slimy ooze, the remains of thousands of seals 
slain years ago, occasionally sinking over our ankles in a substance resembling adipocere; picked 
our way through the scattered anatomy of last year’s seal and walrus; witnessed the remains of 
the 1,500 seals killed but yesterday and of the 1,200 killed the day before. 
From information furnished by Special Agent Otis, it is learned that the prevailing diseases 
are of a pulmonary and cutaneous character, but the mortality returns of a late year show three 
deaths each from scrofula and cerebro-spinal meningitis. Since 1869, out of a population of about 
300, the increase has been but slight, the births and deaths having about balanced each other. The 
mortality per thousand being nearly three times greater than that among more civilized communi- 
ties under more favorable conditions, and the Aleutian women, as a rule, being unprolific, it is 
hardly reasonable to look for any decided increase in the population except under changed and 
more favorable conditions. 
Mr. George Kennan, the genial author of Tent Life in Siberia,” has kindly furnished a trans- 
lation of the chapter from Veniamenoft’s History of the Aleutian Islands, relative to “Diseases and 
their Treatment,” from which the following notes are taken: 
“Tt appears that in the early days of the Russian occupation the Aleutians had some crude 
notions of human anatomy, which they acquired from the dissection of the dead bodies of their 
slaves, and they also had considerable knowledge of medicine and surgery the practice of which, 
being prohibited and suppressed by the Russians, is now entirely lost. Among the diseases most 
common to them were a skin disease known as ‘seep;’ itch, boils, diarrhea, and fever—the latter 
called ‘common’ because no one escaped it—and consumption of two kinds generally considered 
incurable. The first variety was simply a decay of the lungs attended by such symptoms as 
cough, spitting of blood, and shortness of breath; the second, proceeding from decay of the liver, 
was accompanied by griping of the intestines and rapid emaciation. 
“They were also acquainted with another disease which they called the ‘inward disease.’ 
Seurvy and venereal disease were formerly unknown to them. 
