The principal diseases from which these people suffer are pulmonary
troubles, chiefly arising from their filthy manner of living in crowded
huts, too ill ventilated to allow the escape of the odors emanating from
their own bodies and from accumulations of slowly decomposing animal
food. All openings must be closed as quickly as possible in order to
economize the heat within, for when once chilled it is difficult to
restore the house to the proper degree of warmth. An Eskimo would always
prefer to erect a new hut of snow rather than pass the night in one
which has been deserted for only a single night if the doorway has not
been tightly closed with a block of snow.
Within the walls, reeking with the exhalations of various putrid
matters, the people breathe and rebreathe the air filled with poisonous
gases; so fully one-half of the Eskimo die of pulmonary troubles. The
other prevailing diseases are those causing devitalization of the blood,
such as scurvy. Sores break out on the shoulders, elbows, knees, and
ankles. The ravages of these diseases proceed at an astonishing rate,
soon carrying off the afflicted person.
The means of relief usually employed are those which the shaman
(or conjurer, as he is locally known) is able to effect by working on
the imagination of the sick, who is in this condition easily influenced.
The will power of both the patient and shaman is stretched to its utmost
tension, and as faith with them, as with many others of fairer skins,
often produces more of the relief than the ministrations of drugs or
drafts, the cure is effected, or else the shaman, like the physician,
has not the devil on his side.
The magnitude of the disease is generally measured by the amount of the
patient's worldly wealth.