1887] On Some Popular Errors in Regard to the Eskimos. . 9 
live both as parasites and saprophytes; and being capable of 
multiplying wherever the proper pabulum exists, the possibility 
of rapid diffusion, and hence of great epidemics, is readily con- 
ceivable, It is believed by some that for most of such germs a 
sojourn in the soil is a necessary preparation for the parasitic 
Stage. Pettenkofer regards cholera and typhoid not contagious, 
but insists that the germs must first undergo some unknown 
changes in the soil before they again become capable of inducing 
disease. Hence the spread of epidemics depends as much upon 
certain external conditions as upon the presence of the agents 
themselves. This is controverted ground, however, and most 
authorities to-day are inclined to consider the air, the soil, and 
water as simple vehicles for the spread of disease. ; 
There still remain many obscure problems concerning the 
` movement of epidemics, but their solution does not seem so far 
away, as a very firm foundation has been laid for future observa- 
tions. This has been constructed from the life-history of micro- 
organisms. The application of the principles and fundamental 
facts of biology to the elucidation of the causes of disease and 
its prevention is once more brilliantly vindicated. Disease is no 
longer the mysterious, personified entity of the past. It has 
been brought within the domain of laws which govern all life 
upon the earth. 
ON SOME POPULAR ERRORS IN REGARD TO 
THE ESKIMOS. 
BY JOHN MURDOCH. - 
(Re is often surprised, on taking up a popular treatise on 
anthropology, to find the number of erroneous beliefs con- 
cerning a race of people about whom so much has been written 
as about the Eskimos, which have been quoted by author after 
author without question, until they have come to be accepted 
by the world of readers as matters of established fact. Most of 
ese errors are due to the fact that many of the earlier authors, 
even when themselves explorers who correctly recorded the facts 
they observed, hastily accepted the conclusion that isolated 
peculiarities were chardcteristic of the race as a whole, as if, for 
