APPENDIX III 



MEDICAL NOTES ON NORTHERN ALASKA, BY G. P. HOWE, M.D., 

 LAWRENCE, MASS. 



THE following are some general impressions gathered in the course of a 

 year spent on the north coast of Alaska. The inhabitants of this country 

 consist of Eskimos and a few white floe whalers and traders, mostly married 

 to native women. Whale ships wintering north usually stop at Herschel 

 Island, a place 1 did not visit. 



In order to understand the course of disease amongst these people one 

 must know something of their general scheme of life. In winter a typical 

 Eskimo family lives in a house or igloo, made of logs, or stones covered with 

 sod, and, later, snow. To economize heat this house is so low that the head 

 of a tall man, kneeling, almost reaches the roof; and in size it is no larger 

 than is necessary to contain the family and a few household utensils. The 

 level of the floor is below the ground level outside. A long, low passage 

 that one must crawl through on one's hands and knees having two or more 

 doors in it, communicates with the exterior. Light is admitted through the 

 roof by a small window, covered with the peritoneum of the seal. Some 

 air may enter through this, otherwise there is usually no ventilation. If the 

 house is too warm, a door to the outside is opened. The floor is covered 

 with logs, on which the sleeping-skins of the family are laid. Heat is 

 furnished for the most part by blubber lamps, consisting of a shallow dish, 

 often made by hollowing out a soft stone, filled with seal oil, with a wick 

 made of dried moss or calico. Where driftwood is plentiful, as it is all along 

 the North Alaska coast where there are no permanent villages, metal camp 

 stoves have come into use. 



The staple food of the coast Eskimo is seal meat, summer and winter, 

 though whale, deer, bear, fish, and ducks are important in their seasons. 

 Though the primitive Eskimo diet was almost entirely animal, at present 

 most reasonably prosperous natives get considerable tea, flour, sugar, and 

 tobacco. In fact, jthe children suffer considerably if deprived of flour and 

 sugar now. 



The best clothing is made from the skins of deer killed in August. At this 

 season the deer has finished shedding one coat and is just starting to grow 

 the next. The typical male costume consists of two shirts, each with hoods 

 attached, made of deerskin, the inner worn with the hair next the body, the 

 outer worn with the hair outside. Over these a light calico snow-shirt is 

 worn to keep the snow from driving into the hair. The trousers and 

 stockings are also of deerskin, worn with the hair in. In winter the boots 

 are deerskin with the hair inside, but in the spring and summer waterproof 



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