CRUISE OP STEAMER CORWIN IN THE ARCTIC OCEAN. 25 



MEDICAL AND SUEOICAL REMARKS. 



No serious epidemics luive occivrred at Saiut Michael's since 1840, wheu small-pox was iutro- 

 duced by the Russians. This is probably the northern limit of that disease on the PuciHc Ameri- 

 can coast. Of 550 cases occuring at Saint Michael's and Kolmakovsky 200 died, and a famine 

 ensued because of the death of so many of the hunters and providers." 



This post having been for a long time in possession of the Russians before the Alaskan 

 purchase, numerous half-breeds are found in the vicinity, for whom the so-called strumous diath- 

 esis seems to have the preference. That diseases of the latter character have v>revailed for some 

 time may be assumed from examination of an aboriginal skull exhumed from the neighboring grave- 

 yard at Saint Michael's. There is shown extensive necrosis of the bones composing the apex of the 

 sknll, also of the temi)oral and occipital bones and the left half of the inferior maxilla. 



It appears that variola prevailed among the Alaskans previously to the Rnssian occupation, 

 for several early Spanish navigators mention having noticed the marks of small-pox among the 

 natives of Sitka Bay and Port Bucareli on Prince William Sound. The first mention is made by 

 Don Francisco Antonio Maurelle, who explored the coast in 1775. "Journal of a Voyage iu 1775 

 to explore the coast of America northward of California," published in English, Edinburgh, 

 1802. The other reference is '' Relacion del Viaga Heche por los Goletas dutil y Mexicana en el 

 ano de 1792, Madrid, ISOl." 



Hagemeister (Report on Russian Colonies, 1820) says that the first vaccine matter was brought 

 to Alaska in 1808 by the ship Neva, and the surgeon, Mardhorst, who introduced vaccination, 

 instructed the agents of the company in performing the operation. From Tikbmenieff we learn 

 that^400 natives and 1 Russian died of small-pox at Sitka in 1836, and the disease being carried to 

 Kodiak the following year, in March, it caused the death of 737 people. 



On the Alaskan Peninsula vaccination seems to have afforded protection from the disease, for 

 but 27 deaths occurred out of 213 cases. At Ouualaska there were 180 cases, of which 130 died. 

 At Cook's Inlet, the natives refusing to be vaccinated, the mortality is reported to have been greater, 

 but no figures are given. The last cases occurred there in 1810. The reappearance of small-pox 

 was noticed at Sitka in 1862, and it traveled northward, but vaccination is alleged to have lessened 

 the mortality of previous epidemics. 



On reaching Saint Lawrence Bay, Siberia, a native was taken aboard at his own request with 

 a view to utilize his ser\ices, as he spoke a little English. This fellow had a fatuous expression 

 of countenance and a choreic affection which kept up an intermittent twitching of his head. After 

 several days he suffered from constipation and insomnia, for which the usual remedies were admin- 

 istered, with the effect best described in the patient's own phraseology when (luestioued at morning 

 sick call : "Lass night big sick; today small sick; all same bime by good." However, the bustle 

 and stir on board a steam-vessel, with the unusual surroundings, caused a return of the insomnia, 

 and the fellow's state of mind was not improved by seeing our collection of aboriginal crania nor 

 by the chaff and gibes of tlie men in \he forecastle, who made him believe that he was to be taken 

 to San Francisco in a box as an anatomical curiosity, all of which causes tended to produce an 

 illusion of the imagination that exercised a despotism over his weak and uncultivated intellect- 

 High authority asserts that all suicides originate either from insanity or moral cowardice. Here 

 undoubtedly is an instance in which the disorder of the relations between mental and physical 

 functions was of such a nature as to destroy the current presumptions tbunded on these relations 

 as existing in health— the man stabbed himself and jumped into the sea. Happily he was fished 

 aboard with great promptness, a boat being alongside at the time. An inspection showed a pene- 

 trating wound of the chest just under the left nipple, the knife having entered several inches ; blood 

 and air escaped from the wound every time the patient coughed, and tlie hand placed over the 

 surface of the chest showed extensive effusion of blood into the thoracic cavity with the peculiar 

 mucous bubbling or gurgling of traumatopnoja. With such a formidable array of symptoms the 

 patient ought to have perished promptly fiom asphyxia, notwithstanding the application of an 

 occlusive dressing to the wound, a tight roller bandage around the chest, and the administration 

 of the usual stimulant and opiate. After considerable delirium, followed by orthopncea, it was 



* Tikhmenieff: Historical Keview of the Russian Colonies. Vol. I, p. 311-13. 

 H. Ex. 105 4 



