Januakt 27, 1922] 



SCIENCE 



91 



Islands, of which Tahiti is the largest and 

 best-known member. The fundamental point is 

 that the pure-blooded natives of this group 

 of islands suffered a mortality which was re- 

 ported to vary from fifteen to twenty-five per 

 cent, in different circumscribed communities, 

 while the half-caste population lost a distinct- 

 ly smaller percentage; the white inhabitants 

 lost very few of their numbers, thus manifest- 

 ing a high natural resistance. 



The disease was brought to Tahiti in Novem- 

 ber 1918 by a vessel from San Francisco, some 

 of whose passengers had developed the malady 

 after embarking. The vessel was released from 

 quarantine, despite the protests of the medical 

 officials, and within twenty-four hours the con- 

 tagion had begun its rapid spread throughout 

 Papeete, the main town of Tahiti. So far as 

 the writer could ascertain by enquiries in the 

 summer of 1919, the incidence of the epidemic 

 was about the same for all of the three classes 

 of the community, distinguished above. Very 

 few failed to contract the disease. Many na- 

 tives tied from Papeete to the remote districts 

 of Tahiti and to the other islands, so that all 

 parts of the group were affected. 



It was impossible to secure exact quantita- 

 tive data as to the numbers of deaths among 

 the three divisions of the population, for the 

 figures have not been compiled by the authori- 

 ties; but the qualitative result stated above be- 

 came clearer with each additional conversa- 

 tion with medical men and traders, and with 

 numerous native chiefs and commoners. In 

 every case, the questions were framed so as 

 to elicit a statement without disclosing the 

 point at issue; those who are familiar with na- 

 tive peoples will realize that this is a neces- 

 sary precaution when seeking information. 

 Without a single exception the statements 

 agi'eed as to the essential facts. 



Thus the natural resistance of the foreigners 

 proved to be high, even under the adverse 

 climatic conditions of the tropics, while the 

 alien parentage of the half-castes gave to them 

 a greater chance of survival as compared with 

 the unmixed natives, among whose kind a prior 

 process of selection had not occurred as among 

 the nations of Europe and America. 



2. The second instance is that of two dif- 

 ferent native peoples that exhibited an astound- 

 ing difference in mortality when attacked by 

 the same disease. In the summer of 1920 the 

 writer visited the Mariana or Ladrone Islands, 

 where most of the available time was devoted 

 to field-work in Guam; an opportunity was 

 seized, however, to spend a few days on the 

 island of Saipan, which lies about 120 miles 

 to the northward of Guam. The principal 

 settlement of this island is the town of Gara- 

 pan, where the population comprises about 

 1,500 Chamorros, or Mariana Islanders, and 

 an approximately equal number of natives of 

 the Caroline Islands. The two peoples occupy 

 distinct divisions of Garapan on either side 

 of a dividing road, and they remain essen- 

 tially separate in culture, dress, language and 

 matrimonial relations. 



At this place the writer found a gifted 

 Spanish Chamorro named Seiior Gregorio Sab- 

 Ian, who was the teacher-missionary as well 

 as the official interpreter. He described the 

 coming of the influenza epidemic by means of 

 a vessel from Japan about a year before, and 

 he gave very definite accounts of its ravages. 

 As everywhere else, practically all of the in- 

 habitants contracted the disease. The percent- 

 age of deaths among the Chamorros of Saipan 

 was in excess of twelve per cent., while among 

 the Caroline Islanders, equal in total number, 

 the deaths were stated to have been only six, 

 or about four-tenths of one per cent. 



Clearly, then, the latter people displayed a 

 degree of resistance to the pandemic that is 

 astonishingly high in comparison with that of 

 all of the other islanders which the writer per- 

 sonally observed. The circumstances in Gara- 

 pan are such as to bring out this fact most 

 sharply, because the two contrasted groups of 

 natives lived in the same community under 

 practically identical conditions of housing and 

 regimen. Only in the matter of dress w&s 

 there an obvious difference. The Chamorros 

 clothe the body completely, after the manner 

 of the Filipinos, while among the Carolinians 

 the men are naked save for a small loin cloth, 

 and the women wear a fiber mat, or length of 

 cloth, around the body from the waist to the 



