Oil; POSSESSION l \ SAMOA. i 1 



met with in children less than 10 years of age, and not 

 infrequently in young men at the age of 20. There are 

 only about fifty whites in the island, and one of them, a 

 Gorman, has been a resident for thirty-two years. He 

 married a native woman and raised a large family of 

 children. He is now 57 years old, and contracted the 

 disease twelve years ago. It affected the right leg, pur- 

 surd a somewhat acute course, and recently a compli- 

 cating affection of the knee joint made an amputation 

 of the thigh necessary. He made a good recovery, and 

 will leave the hospital in a short time for his island 

 home. This case., like so many others, proves that a 

 prolonged residence in a tropical climate renders the 

 whites susceptible to infection. Skin affections are very 

 prevalent in the island, more especially ulcers of the 

 leg. The lack of clothing and footwear is undoubtedly 

 largely responsible for this, exposing the parts to all 

 sorts of mechanical irritation in walking through the 

 dense bush and along the stony, pebbly shore. These 

 ulcers yield promptly to treatment by rest and the local 

 use of antiseptics. Another common affection is the so- 

 called tropical abscess, a deep-seated, somewhat sub- 

 acute phlegmonous inflammation, attended by only 

 slight constitutional disturbances. It is undoubtedly 

 the result of infection through surface lesions which 

 are so common, that is, the entrance into the tissues 

 of some mild form of pus microbe through a surface in- 

 fection—atrium. These abscesses heal very promptly 

 after incision and drainage. The frequency with which 

 hydrocele is met w T ith is attributed by Dr. Odell to 

 Filaria sanguinis infection, but he has encountered no 

 difficulty in effecting a radical cure by the usual opera- 

 tive treatment. Among the skin affections yaw figures 

 very largely. Dr. Odell showed me a little girl suffer- 

 ing from this disease. The lips and lower segment of 

 the face were covered with very superficial weeping ul- 

 cers. He relies on mercury and chalk incorporated in 

 a salve in its treatment, and has never seen it fail in 



