Health Conditions on the Danmark Expedition. 467 



they had the same weight as when they started out. With regard lastly 

 to the constipation, which in the worst of the cases was successfully 

 overcome by a single injection of water, it is possible that this was due 

 to the lack of fat in the food. 



These same two men were attacked by p e d i с u 1 i on the return- 

 journey, which then for the first time on the Expedition "'appeared 

 officially". They were infected by the Greenlander who accompanied 

 them. On their return to the ship, however, we were successful in quickly 

 ridding the two Danes of the pest; the worst of the clothes were burnt 

 and the rest were dusted over with Tjaeder's insect powder. On a jour- 

 ney during the next winter in which the same Greenlander took part, 

 there was a spell of unusually mild weather and the men lay in shel- 

 tered houses on the Shannon Island. This occasion also led to several 

 of the Danes receiAdng pediculi. But this epidemic was nipped in the 

 bud like the previous one by means of the insect powder. On the other 

 hand, I myself lived in a tent for 6 weeks during the cold period of the 

 year along -with the same Greenlander, without noticing the least trace of 

 the pediculi; the two slight epidemics mentioned were the only ones 

 during the Expedition, though we did not succeed in cleansing the 

 Greenlander. 



The course of events during the last year of the Expedition may 

 be discussed quite briefly. The earlier mentioned incouA^eniences aris- 

 ing from the cold and dark appeared апелу but were undoubtedly less 

 troublesome than during the first mnter. Similarly the journey home- 

 wards was shorter and much easier than the outward journey. No 

 cases of sickness of any importance occurred. 



I have only to add some remarks on clothing and food. With re- 

 gard to the first of these questions, I can in all essentials agree with 

 the view put forward by Dr. Cavalli,i that wool is in reality the only 

 efficient clothing for arctic regions; wool innermost and wool outer- 

 most, not too thick and not too closely woven; in the wind an overcoat 

 of wind-tight linen. Skin is only a make-shift. 



If one works in a coat made of dog-skin, for example, it soon be- 

 comes wet and then freezes stiff; it rubs in the arm-pits and on the neck 

 and becomes difficult or impossible to get on or off; sometimes the frozen 

 skin cracks over a shoulder and gives rise to unbearable currents of air. 

 Wool on the other hand does not prevent evaporation and is therefore 

 never so wet as a skin-coat, and again even in the severest cold it пел^ег 

 becomes so stiff that it cracks. 



Skin is necessary only for f о о t - w a r e. For our winter use on 

 the Danmark Expedition we had either "Kamikker" or Lapland 

 boots; in the summer we made good use of Norwegian ski-boots which 

 were more durable than the "Kamikker" on stony ground. With 



' Die Stella Polare iiii Eismeer. Leipzig l'JU3. 



30* 



