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islands, particularly to the Chiefs and islanders who served in the local 
schools and churches. The medical findings of the expedition, particularly 
individual patients who required further medical attention, were brought 
promptly to the attention of the government medical services in both countries. 
On large islands, such as Efate and Santa Cruz, where the expedition did not 
concentrate on medical, genetic and human biology studies, the physicians on the 
ship were called in as consultants by the local doctors to see many of their 
hospital patients. The expedition provided all medical attention possible to 
those on the islands who required it, but no surgical procedures were attempted 
and patients requiring elective surgery were referred and reported to the 
respective directors of health services. 
Most of the scientific party from overseas joined the program in Port Vila 
and left from Honiara, B.S.I.P., or from Ponape in Micronesia where the final 
laboratory work was completed and the complex packing and dispatching of 
incubated and refrigerated specimens was arranged. Drs. Brown and Guiart left 
the expedition from Santa Cruz in the Solomons after the first five weeks of 
study, and Dr. Sheridan joined us there. Dr. Bowdin was with the expedition 
only in the southern part of the Banks Islands, and Dr. Reveag only in the 
northern Banks and Torres Islands. Dr. Lee participated in the program on 
Tikopia, Anuta and Santa Cruz, Mr. Feinberg on Anuta, where he had been in 
residence for six months of anthropological field work; and Mr. Firipae on 
Rennell and Bellona Islands. Mr. Mbaginta'o first joined the expedition to 
participate in the final cataloging, packing and dispatching of specimens from 
Ponape. There the Chief Scientist, Mr. Mbaginta'o and Mr. Rubinstein continued 
on to the next expedition of the Alpha Helix, that to Pingelap Atoll, under the 
Chief Scientist, Dr. R. Carr, where they continued the medical and human biology 
studies on Pingelap children and departed two weeks later from Ponape. 
The islands are also of particular interest because of their small size and 
limited ecology, with very few species of mosquitoes, ticks or mite vectors of 
disease; some have no mosquito vectors for malaria. They are also a major 
transition area in the Pacific between malaria-affected and malaria-free 
islands; filariasis, similarly, varies from high to low incidence or absence. 
Genetically and culturally they are of interest, in that they contain several 
Polynesian outliers, including proto-Polynesian populations in Rennell and 
Bellona islands within Melanesia. Furthermore, from our earlier investigations 
we had demonstrated a new hemoglobin variant, hemoglobin J Tongariki, in the 
Shepherd Islands, and also in the Banks and Torres populations. We have reason 
to believe this will serve as a unique genetic marker for tracing past 
migrations in the South Pacific. Also, in our earlier studies we had 
encountered extraordinarily high blood group B frequencies on Rennell and 
Bellona Islands, indicating a strange uniqueness in these populations which 
demanded further genetic analysis. Since we had described a focus of familial 
periodic paralysis on Tongariki Island in the Shepherd group, we specifically 
hunted for this disease and found none. The presence of familial goiter and 
cretinsim on Bellona we had also previously noted, and investigations of this 
disease have been expanded. 
We are heavily indebted to the French and British Commissioners in Port 
Vila, and the British High Commissioner and his staff in Honiara for their 
permission to work in their respective islands, and for the administrative and 
logistical assistance they rendered us. We are extremely indebted to the local 
