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Show New Diseases Kill Natives had never been known among them or their ancestors, and their bodies simply had no weapons for the unknown un-known fight. The Hawaiian islands and the Marquesas have suffered more, perhaps, than any of the other island groups. The tragedy still proceeds. In the Marquesas there are now about eight native dea'ths to one birth, and It is predicted by observers of conditions condi-tions that in another decade not one full-blooded Marquesan will be alive." One Kind of Tragedy That Has Always Followed the Advance Ad-vance of Civilization. Washington, D. C. "Announcement that influenza is ravaging the natives of the western coast of Alaska and has resulted in many deaths, recalls that one kind of tragedy has always followed the advance of civilization," Bays a bulletin from the Washington headquar.'ers of the National Geographic Geo-graphic society. "Primitive people in out-of-the-way places, once entirely isolated is-olated from civilization, have been threatened with extermination by even such ordinarily unimportant 'civilized' 'civ-ilized' diseases as measles. It is not a matter of unhealthful regions," continues con-tinues thi bulletin, "for the scenes of such tragedies often have climates bracing and upbuilding to whites and to such natives as escape the first onslaught, on-slaught, and who develop immunity to the new diseases. Marked Handicap. "The natives of Alaska had in their habits of life a marked handicap in fighting disease. They lived and many still live in wooden houses partly below the ground level. These had their single doors always closed, and were without windows. There was one opening in the roof, out of which the smoke from a central fire was supposed to find its way. As many as 50 and 60 persons lived in the larger houses and competed for the little available oxygen amid reeking reek-ing odors of rancid oil and decaying fish and fish-eggs. Sanitation was unknown un-known ; all debris and refuse to be disposed dis-posed of was merely thrown a little way from the doorway. "When civilization automatically transplanted its disease to Alaska, the field was too fertile, and the 'crop' grew rankly. Tuberculosis is now continually con-tinually at work kiling off the native population, but the most spectacular inroads in-roads have been made by measles and smallpox, which have raged from time to time since 1S42 like fires in a dry i thicket. By the time an Immunity at I all comparable to that of the civilized I world was developed, nearly half the population of many regions had been swept away. In later years the work of the United States public health service ser-vice has done much to raise the health standard among the natives. South Sea Isles Hit. "Exactly the same tiling happened in that paradise of isolation, the Islands Is-lands of the South sea. But there the tragedy did not overtake natives weakened by unsanitary living, but rather men and women of Ideal physique, phy-sique, living largely In the open air. Measles,, smallpox and tuberculosis |