One has only to see them carrying their burdens
of peat or to observe the ease with which the fisherwomen on the docks carry their tubs of fish
back from the cleaning table to the tiers of packing barrels to be convinced that these people have
not only been trained to work, but have physiques equal to the task. These studies included the
making of dental examinations, the taking of photographs, the obtaining of samples of saliva for
chemical analysis, the gathering of detailed clinical records, and the collecting of samples of food
for chemical analysis and detailed nutritional data. Communication is very difficult among many of these islands. It would be difficult to find more
complete isolation than some of them afford. We tried to get to the islands of Taransay and Scarpa
on the west coast of the Isle of Harris, but were unable to obtain transportation since the trip can
be made only in special, seaworthy crafts, which will undertake the passage only at certain phases
of the tide and at certain directions of the winds. On one of these islands, we were told, the
growing boys and girls had exceedingly high immunity to tooth decay. Their isolation was so great
that a young woman of about twenty years of age who came to the Isle of Harris from Taransay
Island had never seen milk in any larger quantity than drops. There are no dairy animals on that
island. Their nutrition is provided by their oat products and fish, and by a very limited amount of
vegetable foods. Lobsters and flat fish are a very important part of their foods. Fruits are
practically unknown. Yet the physiques of these people are remarkably fine. It was necessary sometimes for us to engage skilled seamen and their crafts to make a special
trip to some of these isolated islands. These seamen watch critically the tide, wind and sky, and
determine the length of time it will be safe to travel in a certain direction under conditions existing in
the speed of the running tide and the periodic change of the wind. Some of the islands are isolated
by severe weather conditions for many months of the year. These islands have been important in the whaling industry, even up to recent years. We visited a
whaling station on the Isle of Harris, not active at this time, where monsters of the sea were towed
into a deep bay. In the interior of the Isle of Lewis the teeth of the growing boys and girls had a very high degree
of perfection, with only 1.3 teeth out of every hundred examined that had even been attacked by
dental caries. An important part of the study of these islands was the observations made on conditions at the
fringe of civilization. A typical cross-section of the residents of the seaport town of Stornoway can
be seen assembled on the docks to greet the arrival of the evening boat, the principal event of the
community. The group consists largely of adult young people. In a count of one hundred individuals
appearing to be between the ages of twenty and forty, twenty-five were already wearing artificial
teeth, and as many more would have been more presentable had they too been so equipped. Dental caries was very extensive in the modernized section of Stornoway. Since an important part
of these studies involved a determination of the kinds and quantities of foods eaten, it was
necessary to visit the sources available for purchasing foods in each town studied. In Stornoway,
one could purchase angel food cake, white bread, as snow white as that to be found in any
community in the world, many other white-flour products; also, canned marmalades, canned
vegetables, sweetened fruit juices, jams, confections of every type filled the store windows and
counters. These foods probably made a great appeal both because of their variety and their high
sugar content to the pallets of these primitive people. The difference in physical appearance of the
child life of Stornoway from that of the interior of the Isle of Lewis was striking. We found a family
on the opposite coast of the island where the two boys shown in the upper half of Fig. 6 resided. One had excellent teeth and the other had rampant caries. These boys were brothers eating at the
same table. The older boy, with excellent teeth, was still enjoying primitive food of oatmeal and
oatcake and sea foods with some limited dairy products. The younger boy, seen to the left, had
extensive tooth decay. Many teeth were missing including two in the front. He insisted on having
white bread, jam, highly sweetened coffee and also sweet chocolates. His father told me with deep
concern how difficult it was for this boy to get up in the morning and go to work.7/29/13 Nutrition and Physical Degeneration
gutenberg.net.au/ebooks02/0200251h.html#toc 36/250FIG. 6. Above: brothers, Isle of Harris. The younger at left uses
modern food and has rampant tooth decay. Brother at right uses
native food and has excellent teeth. Note narrowed face and arch of
younger brother. Below: typical rampant tooth decay, modernized
Gaelic. Right: typical excellent teeth of primitive Gaelic. One of the sad stories of the Isle of Lewis has to do with the recent rapid progress of the white
plague. The younger generation of the modernized part of the Isle of Lewis is not showing the
same resistance to tuberculosis as their ancestors. Indeed a special hospital has been built at
Stornoway for the rapidly increasing number of tubercular patients, particularly for girls between
twenty and thirty years of age. The superintendent told me with deep concern of the rapidity with
which this menace is growing. Apparently very little consideration was being given to the change in
nutrition as a possible explanation for the failure of this generation to show the defense of previous
generations against pulmonary tuberculosis. In this connection much blame had been placed upon
the housing conditions, it being thought that the thatched-roof house with its smoke-laden air was
an important contributing factor, notwithstanding the fact that former generations had been free
from the disease. I was told that the incidence of tuberculosis was frequently the same in the
modern homes as it was in the thatched-roof homes. It was of special interest to observe the
mental attitude of the native with regard to the thatched-roof house. Again and again, we saw the
new house built beside the old one, and the people apparently living in the new one, but still
keeping the smoke smudging through the thatch of the old thatched-roof house. When I inquired
regarding this I was told by one of the clearthinking residents that this thatch collected something
from the smoke which when put in the soil doubled the growth of plants and yield of grain. He
showed me with keen interest two patches of grain which seemed to demonstrate the soundness of
his contention. I was particularly interested in studying the growing boys and girls at a place called Scalpay in
the Isle of Harris. This Island is very rocky and has only small patches of soil for available
pasturage. For nutrition, the children of this community were dependent very largely on oatmeal
porridge, oatcake and sea foods. An examination of the growing boys and girls disclosed the fact
that only one tooth out of every hundred examined had ever been attacked by tooth decay. The
general physical development of these children was excellent, as may be seen in the upper half of
Fig. 7. Note their broad faces.7/29/13 Nutrition and Physical Degeneration
gutenberg.net.au/ebooks02/0200251h.html#toc 37/250FIG. 7. Above: typical rugged Gaelic children, Isle of Harris, living on
oats and sea food. Note the breadth of the faces and nostrils. Below:
typical modernized Gaelics, Isle of Bardsey. Note narrowed faces and
nostrils. This is in striking contrast with the children of the hamlet of Tarbert which is the only shipping
port on the Isle of Harris, and the place of export of most of the famous Harris tweeds which are
manufactured on looms in the various crofters' homes. These Tarbert children had an incidence of
32.4 carious teeth out of every hundred teeth examined. The distance between these two points is
not over ten miles and both have equal facilities for obtaining sea foods, being on the coast. Only
the latter, however, has access to modern foods, since it supports a white bread bakery store with
modern jams, marmalades, and other kinds of canned foods. In studying the tragedy of the
rampant tooth decay in the mouth of a young man, I asked him regarding his plans and he stated
that he was expecting to go to Stornoway about sixty miles away in the near future, where there
was a dentist, and have all his teeth extracted and plates made. He said that it was no use to have
any teeth filled, that he would have to lose them anyway since that was everybody's experience in
Tarbert. The young women were in just as poor a condition. Through the department of dental inspection for north Scotland, I learned of a place on the Isle
of Skye, Airth of Sleat, in which only a few years ago there were thirty-six children in the school,7/29/13 Nutrition and Physical Degeneration
gutenberg.net.au/ebooks02/0200251h.html#toc 38/250and not one case of dental caries in the group. My examination of the children in this community
disclosed two groups, one living exclusively on modern foods, and the other on primitive foods. Those living on primitive foods had only 0.7 carious teeth per hundred, while those in the group
living on modern foods had 16.3, or twenty-three times as many. This community living near the sea had recently been connected with the outside world by daily
steamboat service which delivered to the people modern foods of various kinds, and within this
community a modern bakery, and a supply house for purchasing the canned vegetables, jams and
marmalades had been established. This district was just in the process of being modernized. I examined teeth of several people in the seventies and eighties, and except for gingival
infections with some loosening of the teeth, nearly all of the teeth were present and there was very
little evidence that dental caries had ever existed. The elderly people were bemoaning the fact that
the generation that was growing up had not the health of former generations. I asked what their
explanation was and they pointed to two stone grinding mills which they said had ground the oats
for oatcake and porridge for their families and preceding families for hundreds of years. Though
they prized them highly, the plea that they would be helpful in educational work in America induced
them to sell the mills to me. They told us with great concern of the recent rapid decline in health of
the young people of this district. This one-time well-populated Island, the misty Isle of Skye, still has one of the finest of the
famous old castles, that belonging to the Dunvegan clan. It participated in the romantic life of
Prince Charlie. The castle equipment still boasts the grandeur of a past glory. Among the relics is a
horn which measured the draft to be drunk by a prospective chieftain before he could aspire to the
leadership of the clan. He must drink its contents of two quarts without stopping. Again the
character of that manhood is reflected in the fact that although a bounty of thirty thousand pounds
was placed upon the head of Prince Charlie, none of the many who knew his place of hiding
betrayed it. On my return from the Outer Hebrides to Scotland, I was concerned to obtain information from
government officials relative to the incidence of tooth decay and the degenerative diseases in
various parts of north Scotland. I was advised that in the last fifty years the average height of
Scotch men in some parts decreased four inches, and that this had been coincident with the general
change from high immunity to dental caries to a loss of immunity in a great part of this general
district. A study of the market places revealed that a large part of the nutrition was shipped into the
district in the form of refined flours and canned goods and sugar. There were very few herds of
dairy cattle to be seen. It was explained that even the highland cattle did not do as well as formerly
on the same ranges. As one proceeds from the north of Scotland southward to England and Wales, there is a
marked increase in the percentage of individuals wearing artificial restorations or in need of them. In several communities this reached fifty per cent of adults over thirty years of age. An effort was
made to find primitive people in the high country of Wales, but without success. We were advised
that about the only place that we would be likely to find people living under primitive conditions
would be on the Island of Bardsey off the northwest coast of Wales. This is a rock and storm-
bound island with the decadent walls of an old castle and a community made up largely of recently
imported colonists whom we were advised had been taken to the Island to re-populate it. There is
considerable good farm land, but very limited grazing stock. Formerly the Island had produced the
foods for its inhabitants with the assistance of the sea. These sources of natural foods have been
largely displaced with imported white flour, marmalades, sugar, jams and canned goods. We found
the physical condition of the people very poor, particularly that of the growing boys and girls. Tooth decay was so wide-spread that 27.6 out of every hundred teeth examined in the growing
boys and girls had already been attacked by dental caries. It was even active in three year olds. From a conference with the director of public health of this district I learned that tuberculosis
constituted a very great problem, not only for the people on this island, but for those of many
districts of northern Wales. This was ascribed to the lowered defense of the people due to causes
unknown. It had been noted that individuals with rampant tooth decay were more susceptible to7/29/13 Nutrition and Physical Degeneration
gutenberg.net.au/ebooks02/0200251h.html#toc 39/250pulmonary tuberculosis. While on the Island of Bardsey, I inquired as to what they thought was the cause of such
extensive tooth decay as we found, and was told that they were familiar with the cause and that it
was due to close contact with the salt water and salt air. When I asked why many of the old
people who had lived by the sea all their lives in some districts still had practically all their teeth and
had never had tooth decay, no explanation was available. This they said was the reason that had
been given in answer to their inquiries. There is a very remarkable history written in the ruins of the island, and in the faces of the
people who live on the Island of Bardsey. The rugged walls of ancient castles bespeak the glory
and power of the people who lived proudly in past centuries. They are testified to also by the
monuments in the cemeteries; but a new era has come to this island. The director of public health,
of this district of Wales, including Bardsey Island, told me the story of the decline and almost
complete extinction of the population due to tuberculosis. He also told how the government had
re-populated the Island with fifty healthy young families, and then the sad story of how these new
settlers were breaking down as rapidly as the former occupants. The lower photograph in Fig. 7 is of a family of four children in whose faces the tragic story is
deeply written. Everyone is a mouth breather and everyone has rampant tooth decay. These
people are products of modernization on this island which one time produced vigorous children
and stalwart men and women. It is important to compare the faces of the children of the Isle of
Bardsey shown in Fig. 7 below with those shown in Fig. 7 above living in an isolated district in the
Isle of Harris. As we will see later, the facial deformity does not reach its maximum severity until
the eruption of the second dentition and the development of the adult face, usually at from nine to
fourteen years of age. In cases of extreme injury, however, we find it appearing in the childhood
face during the period of temporary or deciduous dentition. These children will, doubtless, be
much more seriously deformed when their permanent dentitions and adult faces develop. It is
important for us to keep this picture in mind in its relation to the high incidence of tuberculosis as
we read succeeding chapters and find the part played by modernization in breaking down the
defense of individuals to infective processes including tuberculosis. In Fig. 6 (lower left) is a young girl from the Isle of Bardsey. She is about seventeen years of
age. Her teeth were wrecked with dental caries, the disease involving even the front teeth. We ate
a meal at the home in which she was living. It consisted of white bread, butter and jam, all
imported to the island. This is in striking contrast with the picture of the girl shown in Fig. 6 (lower
right) living in the Isle of Lewis, in the central area. She has splendidly formed dental arches and a
high immunity to tooth decay. Her diet and that of her parents was oatmeal porridge and oatcake
and fish which built stalwart people. The change in the two generations was illustrated by a little girl
and her grandfather on the Isle of Skye. He was the product of the old régime, and about eighty
years of age. He was carrying the harvest from the fields on his back when I stopped him to take
his picture. He was typical of the stalwart product raised on the native foods. His granddaughter
had pinched nostrils and narrowed face. Her dental arches were deformed and her teeth crowded. She was a mouth breather. She had the typical expression of the result of modernization after the
parents had adopted the modern foods of commerce, and abandoned the oatcake, oatmeal
porridge and sea foods.7/29/13 Nutrition and Physical Degeneration
gutenberg.net.au/ebooks02/0200251h.html#toc 40/250FIG. 8. From left to right. These pots of soil growing oats contained decreasing
amounts of smoke-thatch. Only the first produced mature grain. This is in accord
with the belief and practice of the native Gaelics. Since a fundamental part of this study involves an examination of the accumulated wisdom of the
primitive racial stocks, it is important that we look further into the matter of the smoked thatch. I
was advised by the old residents that a serious conflict existed between them and the health
officials who came from outside to their island. The latter blamed the smoke for the sudden
development of tuberculosis in acute form, and they insisted that the old procedure be entirely
discontinued. For this purpose the government gave very substantial assistance in the building of
new and modern homes. The experienced natives contended that the oat crop would not mature in
that severe climate without being fertilized with the smoked thatch. While they were willing to move
into the new house, they were not willing to give up the smoking of the oat straw used for the
thatch to prepare it for fertilizing the ground. I brought some of this smoked thatch with me both
for chemical analysis and for testing for the influence on plant growth. This was done by adding
different quantities of the smoked thatch to a series of pots in which oat seeds were planted. In
Fig. 8 will be seen the result. The pot to the right shows the result of planting the oats in a sandy
soil almost like that of the Islands of the Outer Hebrides. The oats only grew to the fuzzy limited
condition shown. As increasing amounts of this thatch were added to the soil, there was an
increase in the ruggedness of the plants so that in the last pot to the left tall stalks were developed
heavily loaded with grain which ripened by the time the growth shown in the other pots had
occurred. The chemical analysis of the thatch showed that it contained a quantity of fixed nitrogen
and other chemicals resulting from the peat smoke circulating through the thatch. This explains the
confidence of the hardy old natives who insisted on being permitted to continue the smoking of the
thatch even though they did not live in the house. A dietary program competent to build stalwart men and women and rugged boys and girls is
provided the residents of these barren Islands, with their wind and storm-swept coasts, by a diet
of oats used as oatcake and oatmeal porridge; together with fish products, including some fish
organs and eggs. A seriously degenerated stock followed the displacement of this diet with a
typical modern diet consisting of white bread, sugar, jams, syrup, chocolate, coffee, some fish
without livers, canned vegetables, and eggs. 7/29/13 Nutrition and Physical Degeneration
gutenberg.net.au/ebooks02/0200251h.html#toc 41/250
Key to Location of Indian and Eskimo Groups Examined in Canada
1. (Cleveland, Ohio)  21. Bethel Island, Alaska  
2. Six Nation Indian Reservations,
Ontario 22. Holy Cross, Alaska  
3. Tuscarora Indian Reservations,
New York 23. McGrath, Alaska  
4. No. Vancouver Indian
Reservation, British Columbia  24. Eklutna, Alaska  
5. Craigflower Indian Reservation,
Victoria, British Columbia  25. Telegraph Creek, British
Columbia 
6. Skeena River, British Columbia   26. Dease Lake Indian
Reservation, British Columbia   
7. Ketchikan, Alaska  27. McDames, British Columbia  
8. Wrangell, Alaska  28. Liard, British Columbia, Yukon
Border 
9. Juneau, Alaska  29. Edmonton, Alberta  
10. Sitka, Alaska  30. Winnipeg, Manitoba  
11. Cordova, Alaska  31. Broken Head Indian
Reservation, Manitoba  
12. Valdez, Alaska   32. Sioux Lookout, No. Ontario  
13. Seward, Alaska  33. Ombabika, No. Ontario  
14. Anchorage, Alaska  34. Toronto, Ontario  
15. Stoney River, Alaska  35. Loretteville Reservation,
Quebec 
16. Sleet Mute, Alaska  36. Caughnawaga Reservation,
Quebec 
17. Crooked Creek, Alaska  37. Vergennes, Vermont  
18. Napaimute, Alaska  38. Saranac Tuberculosis
Sanitarium, New York  
19. Bethel, Alaska  39. Mohawk Reservation, Ontario  
20. Kokamute, Alaska   
 
  
TABLE OF CONTENTS   
 7/29/13 Nutrition and Physical Degeneration
gutenberg.net.au/ebooks02/0200251h.html#toc 42/250Chapter 5
ISOLATED AND MODERNIZED ESKIMOS
DURING the rise and fall of historic and prehistoric cultures that have often left their monuments
and arts following each other in succession in the same location, one culture, the Eskimo, living on
until today, brings us a robust sample of the Stone Age people. The Maya race is gone, but has left
its monuments. The Indian race is rapidly changing or disappearing in North America. The Eskimo
race has remained true to ancestral type to give us a living demonstration of what Nature can do in
the building of a race competent to withstand for thousands of years the rigors of an Arctic climate. Like the Indian, the Eskimo thrived as long as he was not blighted by the touch of modern
civilization, but with it, like all primitives, he withers and dies. In his primitive state he has provided an example of physical excellence and dental perfection
such as has seldom been excelled by any race in the past or present. We are concerned to know
the secret of this great achievement since his circumscribed life greatly reduces the factors that may
enter as controlling units in molding this excellence. While we are primarily concerned in this study
with the characteristics of the Eskimo dentition and facial form and the effect upon it of his contact
with modern civilization, we are also deeply concerned to know the formula of his nutrition in order
that we may learn from it the secrets that will not only aid the unfortunate modern or so-called
civilized races, but will also, if possible, provide means for assisting in their preservation. It is a sad commentary that with the coming of the white man the Eskimos and Indians are
rapidly reduced both in numbers and physical excellence by the white man's diseases. We have
few problems more urgent or more challenging than that means shall soon be found for preventing
the extermination of the primitive Americans. Many reports have been made with regard to the
condition of the teeth of the Eskimos. Doubtless, all have been relatively authentic for the groups
studied, which have been chiefly along the routes of commerce. Clearly those people would not
represent the most primitive groups, which could only be located beyond the reach of contact with
modern civilization. The problems involved strongly suggested the desirability of locating and
studying Eskimos in isolated districts. While dog teams could furnish means of approach in the
winter season, they would not be available for summer travel. Through the kindness of Dr. Alexis Hrdlicka, who has made anthropological studies of the
Eskimos in many of the districts of Alaska, I learned that the most primitive groups were located
south of the Yukon in the country between it and Bristol Bay including the Delta and mouth of the
Kuskokwim River. A government station has been established on the Kuskokwim River for which
a government boat enters the mouth of the Kuskokwim to deliver supplies. It carries officials, but
not passengers. This contact with civilization has made available modern foods for a limited district,
chiefly at the point at which the boat lands, namely, Bethel. A portion of these supplies is
transported by a stern-wheel river boat to settlements farther up the river. A great number,
however, of Eskimos live between the mouth of the Kuskokwim and the mouth of the Yukon
River, on the mainland and islands, a distance of several hundred miles, and have little or no
contact with this food. Accordingly, our program for making these field studies among the Eskimos in 1933 required
transportation over long distances and into districts where travelling facilities were practically non-
existent by other means than by modern aeroplane. Mrs. Price accompanies and assists me with
my records. Our itinerary included steamship service to Seward in western Alaska and railway to
Anchorage, where an aeroplane was chartered which carried us to various districts in western and
central Alaska. This plane carried our field equipment, and travelled to the points selected. The
great Alaska mountain range, culminating in the magnificent Mt. McKinley, stretches across Alaska
from the Aleutian Peninsula at the southwest far into the heart of this vast territory. The highest
mountain in the United States proper is Mt. Whitney, 14,502 feet. The highest mountain in Canada
is Mt. Logan, 19,539 feet. Alaska, however, boasts many mountains that are higher than any of
these, many of which are in this range. Mt. McKinley is 20,300 feet. It was necessary for us to7/29/13 Nutrition and Physical Degeneration
gutenberg.net.au/ebooks02/0200251h.html#toc 43/250surmount this magnificent range to reach the territory in which our investigations were to be made. The special aeroplane selected was equipped with radio for both sending and receiving, and was in
touch, or could be in touch at all times, with the Signal Service Corps, as well as with the
headquarters and branches of the Company. Owing to clouds in the selected pass, the pilot found
it necessary to go one hundred fifty miles out of his course to find one that was clear enough to fly
through. Beyond these mountains were vast areas of bare wilderness with no signs of human life. Moose were frequently seen. Our first objective was to find, if possible, a band of Indians reported to live on Stony River. They had been described as being very primitive. Our pilot, who was well informed about this
region, said this was the first time he had even landed in this district. All the people were busy
catching and storing the running salmon. After drying the fish they are smoked for a few hours and
then stored for winter use. These thrifty people have physical features quite unlike the Indians of
central, southern and eastern Alaska. Of the twelve individuals studied here, ten had lived entirely
on the native foods or practically so. In their 288 teeth only one tooth was found that had ever
been attacked by tooth decay, or 0.3 per cent. Two had come up from the Kuskokwim River, of
which the Stony River is a branch. There, they had received a considerable quantity of the "store
grub" that had been shipped up the Kuskokwim from Bethel. Twenty-seven per cent of the teeth
of these two had been attacked by dental caries. We then proceeded to Sleet Mute, on the Kuskokwim River, where three individuals were
found who had lived entirely on native foods. None of them had ever had a tooth attacked by
tooth decay. Seven others had lived partly on native foods and partly on "store grub," and they had
dental caries in 12.2 per cent of their teeth. At Crooked Creek, the next settlement, eight individuals were examined and of their 216 teeth
forty-one, or 18.9 per cent, had caries. All but one of these were living in considerable part on
"store grub," and this individual had no dental caries. At Napimute, 16 per cent of the teeth had been attacked by dental caries, but no individuals
studied here were living entirely on native foods. Bethel is the largest settlement on the Kuskokwim, and contains in addition to the white
residents many visiting Eskimos from the nearby Tundra country surrounding it. Eighty-eight
individuals studied here were largely Eskimos and mixed bloods. Of their 2,490 teeth, 11.6 per
cent, or 281 teeth, had been attacked by tooth decay. Of these eighty-eight individuals twenty-
seven with 796 teeth had lived almost exclusively on natural foods, and in this group only one tooth
was found with dental caries, or 0.1 per cent. Forty individuals were living almost exclusively on
modern foods as shipped in by the government supply boat. Of their 1,094 teeth, 252, or 21.1 per
cent, had been attacked by tooth decay. Twenty-one individuals were living partly on native foods
and partly on "store grub," and of their 600 teeth thirty-eight, or 6.3 per cent, had been attacked
by tooth decay. At Kokamute, on the Bering Sea at the mouth of the Kuskokwim River, a large band of very
primitive Eskimos was studied. They had come from the vicinity of Nelson Island, a district which
has had exceedingly little contact with modern civilization. In this group twenty-eight individuals
with 820 teeth showed only one tooth, or 0.1 per cent, that had ever been attacked by dental
caries. Bethel Island is situated in the Kuskokwim River. It is visited in the summer by Eskimos from
the Tundra Country for laying in their store of fish for winter use. Of fifteen individuals here,
thirteen, with 410 teeth, had lived exclusively on native foods, and not a single tooth had been
attacked by dental caries. Two had come from Bethel, and of their sixty teeth twenty-one or 35
per cent had been attacked by tooth decay. In the various groups in the lower Kuskokwim seventy-two individuals who were living
exclusively on native foods had in their 2,138 teeth only two teeth or 0.09 per cent that had ever7/29/13 Nutrition and Physical Degeneration
gutenberg.net.au/ebooks02/0200251h.html#toc 44/250been attacked by tooth decay. In this district eighty-one individuals were studied who had been
living in part or in considerable part on modern foods, and of their 2,254 teeth 394 or 13 per cent
had been attacked by dental caries. This represents an increase in dental caries of 144 fold. It next became desirable to study a district that had been in contact with the foods of modern
commerce for many years, and for this Holy Cross was selected. This community is located on the
Yukon River above the Arctic Circle. It has been in contact with the summer commerce of the
Yukon for several decades. It has one of the oldest and best organized Catholic Missions of
Alaska. The individuals studied were all in the school connected with the Mission. The students
had come from as far north as Point Barrow on the Arctic Ocean and west to the Bering Straits. All but one had been in contact with and had used modern foods before coming to the Mission,
and were using them while there. This one individual had lived exclusively on native foods before
coming to the Mission and he had no carious teeth. In eight individuals with 224 teeth, who had
lived very largely on modern foods, forty-two teeth or 18.7 per cent had been attacked by tooth
decay. Four individuals had lived partly on native foods and partly on modern foods, and of their
112 teeth four, or 3.5 per cent, had been attacked by tooth decay. It is of interest that while the Eskimos and Indians have lived in accord, they have not
intermarried. The Eskimos occupy the lower section of the Yukon and Kuskokwim Rivers, and
the Bering Sea frontier. The Indians have occupied the Upper waterways of both these rivers. The
next place selected for study was McGrath, which is on the Upper Kuskokwim not far distant
from the McKinley Mountain Range. It is the upper terminus of navigation on the Kuskokwim
River for the stern-wheel river boats. Its chief importance lies in the fact that it is the division point
on the Cross Alaska Aeroplane Routes from Anchorage or Fairbanks to Nome and other western
points. Its population consists of several white prospectors and miners who have stayed in the
country following the gold rush. Some of them have married Indian and Eskimo women. Of
twenty-one individuals only one had lived almost exclusively on native foods and she had no dental
caries. Twenty had lived chiefly on imported foods, and of their 527 teeth 175, or 33.2 per cent,
had been attacked by tooth decay. Among the residents of McGrath there is a remarkable family. The father is an American mining
engineer who has spent much of his life in that country. His wife is a charming Eskimo woman of
splendid intelligence and fine personality. She had come originally from the lower Kuskokwim and
was one of the primitive Eskimo stock. While mining interests had provided food supplies for the
family, shipped from the United States, she followed her early training and insisted on catching and
storing salmon in season as an important part of her own dietary. The salmon were dried and
smoked as was the custom of her people. She is the mother of at least twenty children, for she
could give the names of that many. Only eleven were living, however, several having died from
tuberculosis. Notwithstanding her many overloads, not a single tooth had ever been attacked by
tooth decay. A lower anterior tooth had been broken. A picture of this woman is shown in Fig. 9
(upper, left). There has been extensive wear of the teeth, as is characteristic of the teeth of many of
the Eskimos, a matter which we will presently discuss. It is of interest to note the splendid
symmetry of her dental arches. Her children and husband and son-in-law had lived very largely on
modern foods and in these eight individuals with 212 teeth eighty-seven, or 41 per cent, had been
attacked by tooth decay. Her oldest living daughter is twenty-two years of age. She has a
narrowing of the upper arch and extensive tooth decay. Another daughter, sixteen, is a beautiful
girl except for her narrow dental arches. She was reported by our pilot to have become so deeply
interested in the engines of the aircrafts as they stopped at this point for servicing and fuel that she
had become expert in tuning up and conditioning aeroplane motors. She, doubtless, inherited some
of the genius of her father, who is a mining engineer. Twelve of her teeth had been attacked by
dental caries.7/29/13 Nutrition and Physical Degeneration
gutenberg.net.au/ebooks02/0200251h.html#toc 45/250FIG. 9. Typical native Alaskan Eskimos. Note the broad faces
and broad arches and no dental caries (tooth decay). Upper
left, woman has a broken lower tooth. She has had twenty-six
children with no tooth decay. One does not get a conception of the magnificent dental development of the more primitive
Eskimos simply by learning that they have freedom from dental caries. The size and strength of the
mandible, the breadth of the face and the strength of the muscles of mastication all reach a degree
of excellence that is seldom seen in other races. This is typically illustrated in Fig. 9. I was told that
an average adult Eskimo man can carry one hundred pounds in each hand and one hundred
pounds in his teeth with ease for a considerable distance. This illustrates the physical development
of other parts of the body as well as the jaws, and suggests that the exercising of the jaws is not
the sole reason for their very fine teeth, since the superb development of the musculature includes
all parts of the body. It has also been suggested that chewing of tough foods, by building teeth of
exceptionally fine quality, has been an important factor in the establishment of immunity to caries. As will be shown presently, the teeth of these individuals with their excellent physical development
and fine tooth structure develop caries when they depart from their native foods and adopt our
modern foods. Much has been reported in the literature of the excessive wear of the Eskimos' teeth, which in
the case of the women has been ascribed to the chewing of the leather in the process of tanning. It
is of interest that while many of the teeth studied gave evidence of excessive wear involving the
crowns to a depth that in many individuals would have exposed the pulps, there was in no case an
open pulp chamber. They were always filled with secondary dentin. This is important since our
newer knowledge indicates that with the chemical characteristics of their food we might expect that7/29/13 Nutrition and Physical Degeneration
gutenberg.net.au/ebooks02/0200251h.html#toc 46/250secondary dentin would be readily formed within the pulp chambers by a process similar to that
which occurs in many individuals under a diet reinforced with mineral and activator-providing
foods. One old Eskimo had a scar on his lower lip, which was the result of perforations for
carrying a decoration as practiced by his tribe. I have found primitive tribes in several parts of the
world with this marking. The principal outer garment worn by the Eskimo for the more primitive groups consists of a
parka carrying a hood which is pulled over the head and closed around the neck with a shirr string,
while another shirr string controls the size of the face opening in the hood when it is up. In the
summer this is made of cloth or of skin without the fur. A typical case is shown in Fig. 9. It will
again be noted that the teeth are excessively worn. FIG. 10. These primitive Alaskan mothers rear strong, rugged
babies. The mothers do not suffer from dental caries. Owing to the bleakness of the winds off the Bering Sea, even in the summer many of the women
wear furs. A typical mother and child dressed in their warm clothing are shown in Fig. 10. The
Eskimo women are both artistic and skillful in needle work. They use fur of different colors for
decorating their garments. These women make artistic decorations by carving ivory from walrus
teeth and from the buried tusks of the hairy mammoth that wandered over the Tundra tens of
thousands of years ago. The ear decoration of this Eskimo woman is a typical design. This
mother's teeth are literally "two rows of pearls." It is important to note the width of the arches. One
is continually impressed with the magnificent health of the child life which is illustrated in Fig. 10. In
our various contacts with them we never heard an Eskimo child crying except when hungry, or
frightened by the presence of strangers. The women are characterized by the abundance of
breastfood which almost always develops normally and is maintained without difficulty for a year. The mothers were completely free of dental caries, and I was told that the children of the Eskimos
have no difficulties with the cutting of their teeth.7/29/13 Nutrition and Physical Degeneration
gutenberg.net.au/ebooks02/0200251h.html#toc 47/250FIG. 11. When the primitive Alaskan Eskimos obtain the
white man's foods, dental caries become active. Pyorrhea
also often becomes severe. In many districts dental service
cannot be obtained and suffering is acute and prolonged. The excellence of dentitions among the Eskimos has been a characteristic also of the skulls that
have been excavated in various parts of Alaska. It might be expected that such wonderfully formed teeth would maintain so high an immunity to
dental caries that their proud possessors would never be troubled with tooth decay. This,
unfortunately, is not the case, a fact of great significance in evaluating our modern theories of the
causes of dental caries. When these adult Eskimos exchange their foods for our modern foods,
which we will discuss in Chapter 15, they often have very extensive tooth decay and suffer
severely. This is clearly illustrated in Fig. 11, for these Eskimos' teeth had been seriously wrecked
by tooth decay. They had been living on modern foods and were typical of a large number who
are in contact with the Bering Sea ports. Their plight often becomes tragic since there are no
dentists in these districts. A typical effect of modernization on a growing girl was shown in a case in which the central
incisors and 16 other teeth were attacked by dental caries. Sixty-four per cent of her teeth had
tooth decay. There are no dentists in western Alaska, north or west of Anchorage, which is near the southern
coast, except at Fairbanks which, like Anchorage, is many hundreds of miles from these Eskimos. It would take months for them to make the journey in winter by dog team, and it would be
practically impossible to make it in the summer season by any means of travel except by
aeroplane, which clearly these people could not afford. Their dilemma is, accordingly, most tragic
when they suddenly become victims of diseases which require hospitalization or skilled medical or
dental service. One mining engineer in the interior told me that he had spent two thousand dollars
to have a dentist brought in by aeroplane to render dental service. On my examination of his mouth
I found twenty-nine of his thirty-two teeth had been attacked by dental caries. One important phase of modern degeneration, namely, change in facial and dental arch form and
other physical expressions, is of interest. It is a matter of great significance that the Eskimos who
are living in isolated districts and on native foods have produced uniformly broad dental arches and
typical Eskimo facial patterns. Even the first generation forsaking that diet and using the modern
diet, presents large numbers of individuals with marked changes in facial and dental arch form. In
Fig. 12 will be seen four Eskimo girls who are of the first generation following the adoption of7/29/13 Nutrition and Physical Degeneration
gutenberg.net.au/ebooks02/0200251h.html#toc 48/250modernized foods by their parents. All have deformed dental arches. It is important to note the
pattern of the settling inward of the lateral incisors and the crowding outward of the cuspids. This
facial design is currently assigned to a mixing of racial bloods. These girls are pure-blooded
Eskimos whose parents have normally formed dental arches. FIG. 12. While dental arch deformities or crowded teeth are
practically unknown among many of the primitive groups of
Eskimos, they occur frequently in the first generation of
children born after the parents have adopted the white man's
foods. Note the narrow nostrils and changed facial form of
these children. This is not due to thumb sucking. We are particularly concerned with the foods used by these primitive Eskimos. They almost
always have their homes on or near deep water. Their skill in handling their kayaks is most
remarkable. During the salmon running season they store large quantities of dried salmon. They
spear many of these fish from their kayaks; even young boys are very skillful. They land salmon so
large that they can hardly lift them. They are expert in spearing seals from these light crafts. Seal oil
provides a very important part of their nutrition. As each piece of fish is broken off, it is dipped in
seal oil. I obtained some seal oil from them and brought it to my laboratory for analyzing for its
vitamin content. It proved to be one of the richest foods in vitamin A that I have found. The fish are hung on racks in the wind for drying. Fish eggs are also spread out to dry, as shown
in Fig. 13. These foods constitute a very important part of the nutrition of the small children after
they are weaned. Naturally, the drifting sands of the bleak Bering Straits lodge upon and cling to
the moist surfaces of the fish that are hung up to dry. This constitutes the principal cause for the
excessive wear of the Eskimos' teeth in both men and women. FIG. 13. The eggs of the salmon are dried and stored as an
important item of nutrition for both children and adults. They
are also used to increase the fertility of the women. From a
7/29/13 Nutrition and Physical Degeneration
gutenberg.net.au/ebooks02/0200251h.html#toc 49/250are also used to increase the fertility of the women. From a
chemical standpoint they are one of the most nutritious
foods I have found anywhere. The food of these Eskimos in their native state includes caribou, ground nuts which are gathered
by mice and stored in caches, kelp which is gathered in season and stored for winter use, berries
including cranberries which are preserved by freezing, blossoms of flowers preserved in seal oil,
sorrel grass preserved in seal oil, and quantities of frozen fish. Another important food factor
consists of the organs of the large animals of the sea, including certain layers of the skin of one of
the species of whale, which has been found to be very high in vitamin C.
    Since contact with our modern civilization, the Eskimo population for Alaska is very rapidly
declining. One authority has quoted the reduction of 50 per cent in population in seventy-five
years. An important observation has been made relative to the rapid shortening of the average life by
Dr. V. E. Levine and Professor C. W. Bauer, of Creighton University, Nebraska, who reported:
    Cordova, Alaska, Oct. 26, 1934--Due to susceptibility to tuberculosis and other diseases the
average life span of the Eskimo of Alaska is only 20 years and their race is doomed to extinction
within a few generations unless modern medical science comes to their aid. Unless a very radical change is made in the interference with the native supply of game and sea
foods, the Eskimo population seems destined to have a rapid decline and an early extinction. Their
primitive fish foods have been largely curtailed by the encroachment on their salmon streams made
by modern canneries. It is of interest to discuss in connection with the Alaskan Eskimo two white boys (one is shown
in Fig. 14), who were sons of a mining engineer. They had been born and raised in a mining camp
in Alaska, where their foods had been almost entirely shipped in. I travelled with the mother of
these two boys who was bringing them to the United States for operations on their noses, because
they were mouth-breathers. It is important to observe the marked underdevelopment of both the
middle third and lower third of the face of the boy shown in Fig. 14. The nutrition of the family
during their development and growth had been largely provided in package form shipped in from
the United States. Their disfiguration is typical of that of large numbers that are developing in our
highly modernized communities, and is similar, in general, to the deformities which develop in the
primitive races after they adopt the modernized nutrition. FIG. 14. This white boy was born and raised in Alaska on
imported foods. His facial deformity includes a lack of
development of the air passages, so that he breathes
through his mouth. Lack of bone development creates the
crowded condition of the teeth. Note his narrow nostrils. Notwithstanding the very inhospitable part of the world in which they reside, with nine or ten
months of winter and only two or three of summer, and in spite of the absence for long periods of
plant foods and dairy products and eggs, the Eskimos were able to provide their bodies with all
the mineral and vitamin requirements from sea foods, stored greens and berries and plants from the
sea.7/29/13 Nutrition and Physical Degeneration
gutenberg.net.au/ebooks02/0200251h.html#toc 50/250 
  
TABLE OF CONTENTS    
 
Chapter 6
PRIMITIVE AND MODERNIZED NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS
NATURE seems to have made one of her large scale demonstrations in the Americas of the
power of adaptation of a single racial stock to the scale of climates ranging from torrid jungles of
the tropics to the Arctics. The various members of the American Indian race seem clearly to have
come from a common origin. The route by which they reached America from Asia as suggested by
anthropologists was by way of the Bering Strait. Within a decade a Russian engineer has crossed
from Asia to America on the pack ice of the Bering sea, a distance of ninety miles. If this is
possible now, how much more likely is it that it has been possible in earlier periods of the world's
history, as, for example, during or following the last ice age, or at the time of an earlier ice age. The
American Indian, therefore, provides a very remarkable opportunity to study both the capacity for
adaptability to different environments and the variations that different environments can produce in
a single racial stock. That the Indian of today is not in general a counterpart of the native resident
at the time of the discovery of America by Columbus is clearly demonstrated both by the skeletal
material and by the early records. Our problem involved the location and study of groups of the original stock, if such were to be
found, who were living in accordance with the tradition of their race and as little affected as might
be possible by the influence of the white man. At first thought it might seem impossible that such
groups can exist, but as a matter of fact there are still great areas of the American continent
inhabited by the original stock living in areas still unexplored. In order to find Indians as little
changed as possible by reason of their contact with the white man, particularly with the white man's
foods, I went to northern Canada to the region inside the Rocky Mountain range to study the
Indians of Northern British Columbia and the Yukon territory. Since an aeroplane could not be
used, owing to the lack of a base of supplies for fuel for the return trip; and since the MacKenzie
water route was impracticable (an expedition could not go up the waterways through Canada on
the MacKenzie River and its branches and return the same season), the route selected was that
which enters that territory from Alaska on the large waterway of the Stikine River. This river has
cut its channel through the Coast and Cascade Ranges of mountains and has its origin in the high
western watershed of the Rockies. It was particularly desirable to reach a group of Indians who
could not obtain the animal life of the sea, not even the running salmon. These fish do not enter the
waterways draining to the Arctic. We used a high-powered river transport specially designed for
going up rapids on the Stikine River to the end of navigation at Telegraph Creek. At this point
large quantities of modern foods are stored during the short open navigation season of the summer
to be exchanged for furs during the long winter. A Hudson Bay Post has been established at this
point. Here a truck was chartered which took us over a trail across the Rocky Mountain Divide to
the headwaters of the rivers flowing north to the Arctic. At this outpost two guides were engaged
and a high powered scow chartered to make the trip down the waterways toward the Arctic on
the Diese and Liard Rivers. This made it possible, in the summer of 1933, to make contact with
large bands of Indians who had come out of the Pelly mountain country to exchange their catch of
furs at the last outpost of the Hudson Bay Company. Most of the Indians of Canada are under
treaty with the Canadian Government whereby that government gives them an annual per capita
bounty. This arrangement induces the Indians in the interior to come out to the designated centers
to obtain the bounty. Since it is based on the number in the family, all of the children are brought. This treaty, however, was never signed by the Indians of the British Columbia and Yukon7/29/13 Nutrition and Physical Degeneration
gutenberg.net.au/ebooks02/0200251h.html#toc 51/250Territory. And, accordingly, they have remained as nomadic wandering tribes following the moose
and caribou herds in the necessary search to obtain their foods. The rigorous winters reach seventy degrees below zero. This precludes the possibility of
maintaining dairy animals or growing seed cereals or fruits. The diet of these Indians is almost
entirely limited to the wild animals of the chase. This made a study of them exceedingly important. The wisdom of these people regarding Nature's laws, and their skill in adapting themselves to the
rigorous climate and very limited variety of foods, and these often very hard to obtain, have
developed a skill in the art of living comfortably with rugged Nature that has been approached by
few other tribes in the world. The sense of honor among these tribes is so strong that practically all
cabins, temporarily unoccupied due to the absence of the Indians on their hunting trip, were
entirely unprotected by locks; and the valuables belonging to the Indians were left in plain sight. The people were remarkably hospitable, and where they had not been taken advantage of were
very kind. Many of the women had never seen a white woman until they saw Mrs. Price. Their
knowledge of woodcraft as expressed in skill in building their cabins so that they would be kept
comfortably warm and protected from the sub-zero weather was remarkable. Their planning
ahead for storing provisions and firewood strongly emphasized their community spirit. When an
Indian and his family moved to a camp site on a lake or river, they always girdled a few more trees
than they would use for firewood so that there would be a plentiful supply of dry standing timber
for future visitors to the camp. They lived in a country in which grizzly bears were common. Their pelts were highly prized and
they captured many of them with baited pitfalls. Their knowledge of the use of different organs and
tissues of the animals for providing a defense against certain of the affections of the body which we
speak of as degenerative diseases was surprising. When I asked an old Indian, through an
interpreter, why the Indians did not get scurvy he replied promptly that that was a white man's
disease. I asked whether it was possible for the Indians to get scurvy. He replied that it was, but
said that the Indians know how to prevent it and the white man does not. When asked why he did
not tell the white man how, his reply was that the white man knew too much to ask the Indian
anything. I then asked him if he would tell me. He said he would if the chief said he might. He went
to see the chief and returned in about an hour, saying that the chief said he could tell me because I
was a friend of the Indians and had come to tell the Indians not to eat the food in the white man's
store. He took me by the hand and led me to a log where we both sat down. He then described
how when the Indian kills a moose he opens it up and at the back of the moose just above the
kidney there are what he described as two small balls in the fat. These he said the Indian would
take and cut up into as many pieces as there were little and big Indians in the family and each one
would eat his piece. They would eat also the walls of the second stomach. By eating these parts of
the animal the Indians would keep free from scurvy, which is due to the lack of vitamin C. The
Indians were getting vitamin C from the adrenal glands and organs. Modern science has very
recently discovered that the adrenal glands are the richest sources of vitamin C in all animal or
plant tissues. We found these Indians most cooperative in aiding us. We, of course, had taken
presents that we thought would be appreciated by them, and we had no difficulty in making
measurements and photographs, nor, indeed, in making a detailed study of the condition of each
tooth in the dental arches. I obtained samples of saliva, and of their foods for chemical analysis. A
typical Indian family in the big timber forests in shown in Fig. 15.7/29/13 Nutrition and Physical Degeneration
gutenberg.net.au/ebooks02/0200251h.html#toc 52/250FIG. 15. This typical family of forest Indians of Northern Canada
presents a picture of superb health. They live amidst an abundance of
food in the form of wild animal life in the shelter of the big timber. The condition of the teeth, and the shape of the dental arches and the facial form, were superb. Indeed, in several groups examined not a single tooth was found that had ever been attacked by
tooth decay. In an examination of eighty-seven individuals having 2,464 teeth only four teeth were
found that had ever been attacked by dental caries. This is equivalent to 0.16 per cent. As we
came back to civilization and studied, successively, different groups with increasing amounts of
contact with modern civilization, we found dental caries increased progressively, reaching 25.5 per
cent of all of the teeth examined at Telegraph Creek, the point of contact with the white man's
foods. As we came down the Stikine River to the Alaskan frontier towns, the dental caries
problem increased to 40 per cent of all of the teeth. Careful inquiry regarding the presence of arthritis was made in the more isolated groups. We
neither saw nor heard of a case in the isolated groups. However, at the point of contact with the
foods of modern civilization many cases were found including ten bed-ridden cripples in a series of
about twenty Indian homes. Some other affections made their appearance here, particularly
tuberculosis which was taking a very severe toll of the children who had been born at this center. In Fig. 16 are seen two typical cases of tubercular involvement of glands of the neck. The suffering
from tooth decay was tragic. There were no dentists, no doctors available within hundreds of miles
to relieve suffering. FIG. 16. At the point of modernization including the use of
the foods of modern commerce, the health problem of the
Indians is very different. These modernized Indian children
are dying of tuberculosis which seldom kills the primitives. The physiques of the Indians of the far north who are still living in their isolated locations and in
accordance with their accumulated wisdom were superb. There were practically no irregular teeth,
including no impacted third molars, as evidenced by the fact that all individuals old enough to have
the molars erupted had them standing in position and functioning normally for mastication. The
excellence of the dental arches is shown in Fig. 17. Where the Indians were using the white man's
food tooth decay was very severe, as shown in Fig. 18. In the new generation, after meeting the
white civilization and using his foods, many developed crooked teeth, so-called, with deformed
dental arches, as seen in Fig. 19.7/29/13 Nutrition and Physical Degeneration
gutenberg.net.au/ebooks02/0200251h.html#toc 53/250FIG. 17. Wherever the Indians were living on their native
foods, chiefly moose and caribou meat, their physical
development including facial and dental arch form was
superb with nearly complete immunity to dental caries. These
two women and two girls are typical. FIG. 18. Wherever the Indians had access to the modern
foods of commerce the dental conditions were extremely bad. These four individuals are typical. 7/29/13 Nutrition and Physical Degeneration
gutenberg.net.au/ebooks02/0200251h.html#toc 54/250FIG. 19. The blight of the white man's commerce is seen
everywhere in the distorted countenances of even the first
generation after the adoption by the parents of the foods of
modern commerce. These young people with their deformed
dental arches are typical. Note the faulty development of the
facial bones as evidenced by the narrow nostrils and
crowded teeth. Contact was also made with representatives of relatively isolated primitive Indian stocks in the
district south of Hudson Bay. These groups were reached by a newly projected railroad extending
eastward and northward from Winnipeg, Manitoba, and we were thus brought into contact with
the Indians that had come out of the waterways draining the Hudson Bay and from as far north as
James Bay. They had come down to dispose of their furs in exchange for ammunition, blankets,
etc. Since this contact was made only once or twice a year, it was quite impossible for the Indians
to carry back a sufficient quantity of the foods of the white man to have great influence on their
total diet for the year. They still lived on the wild animal game of the land. As in the northern
country just reviewed, their principal large animal was the moose. These are treaty Indians, and
many of them come out to this frontier to obtain the government bounty and, accordingly, were
obliged to bring their families. The bounty here amounted to five dollars per head, a considerable
income in exchange for blankets and other equipment. Some of these contact points were at the
height of the land dividing the waters running north and east to James Bay and Hudson Bay, or
south to Lake Superior. This was historic country that had been the meeting ground of the tribes of
the northern waters with the tribes of the Great Lakes district. Many battles had been fought there. For comparison with these more primitive groups from the Hudson and James Bay watershed, I
had the opportunity here of studying families that had taken up residence along the railroad or in its
vicinity in order that they might have the advantage of exchanging furs for the modern white man's
foods. This gave us an excellent opportunity to study the effects of the modern dietary, of which an
example is shown in Fig. 20. This Indian and his wife had built their bodies before the contact with
the white man. He is about six feet tall. Both the parents had splendid dental arches and well
formed faces. His teeth are shown in Fig. 20 (upper, left). Their two children shown in the
photograph were born after the adoption of the white man's foods brought in by the railroad. Both
are mouth-breathers and both have narrow dental arches and marked underdevelopment of the
middle third of the face. The older girl has tuberculosis. Another adult man is shown in Fig. 20
(upper, right). He, like the generation he represents, has exceptionally fine dental arches and well
developed face.7/29/13 Nutrition and Physical Degeneration
gutenberg.net.au/ebooks02/0200251h.html#toc 55/250FIG. 20. These primitive Indians are in central Canada. The
three parents were developed before their district was
reached by modern civilization. Note their good physical and
facial form in contrast with the pinched nostrils of the two
children. The oldest girl has tuberculosis. They are the
product of civilization's contact with their primitive parents. At this point we again found many of the younger generation ill with tuberculosis or crippled with
arthritis. Two of these are shown in Fig. 21. FIG. 21. These are typical cripples met at the point of contact of our
modern civilization with the primitive Indians. The boy at the left has
arthritis in nearly all of his joints. He has several abscessed teeth. The
boy at the right has tubercul sis of the spine. For further comparison of the more isolated and more highly modernized groups a study was
made of the Indians in the largest single Indian Reservation in Canada, which is located at
Brantford, Ontario. In this group there are about 4,700 Indians living under highly modernized
conditions provided by the Canadian Government. They live on very fertile land and in close
proximity to a modern Canadian city. Each head of a family is provided with a tract of land from
which he usually has an income sufficient to permit him to have an automobile. They were able to
buy not only necessities and comforts according to the modern standards of the white man, but
many of the luxuries as well. The government provides a well administered hospital and staff.7/29/13 Nutrition and Physical Degeneration
gutenberg.net.au/ebooks02/0200251h.html#toc 56/250When I asked the Director of this hospital, Dr. Davis, what the principal use of the hospital was at
that time (1933), he said that the demand for beds had completely changed in the twenty-eight
years he had been there. The principal services requested at the hospital in 1933 related to the
problems of maternity. He stated that in his period of contact he had seen three generations of
mothers. The grandmothers of the present generation would take a shawl and either alone or
accompanied by one member of their family retire to the bush and give birth to the baby and return
with it to the cabin. A problem of little difficulty or concern, it seemed. He stated that today the
young mothers of this last generation are brought to his hospital sometimes after they have been in
labor for days.
Nutrition_and_Physical_Degeneration_by_Weston_Price.txt
Summarize the following text section accurately and concisely. Maintain specific details and numerical information, and use anti-repetition mechanisms:

        One has only to see them carrying their burdens
of peat or to observe the ease with which the fisherwomen on the docks carry their tubs of fish
back from the cleaning table to the tiers of packing barrels to be convinced that these people have
not only been trained to work, but have physiques equal to the task. These studies included the
making of dental examinations, the taking of photographs, the obtaining of samples of saliva for
chemical analysis, the gathering of detailed clinical records, and the collecting of samples of food
for chemical analysis and detailed nutritional data. Communication is very difficult among many of these islands. It would be difficult to find more
complete isolation than some of them afford. We tried to get to the islands of Taransay and Scarpa
on the west coast of the Isle of Harris, but were unable to obtain transportation since the trip can
be made only in special, seaworthy crafts, which will undertake the passage only at certain phases
of the tide and at certain directions of the winds. On one of these islands, we were told, the
growing boys and girls had exceedingly high immunity to tooth decay. Their isolation was so great
that a young woman of about twenty years of age who came to the Isle of Harris from Taransay
Island had never seen milk in any larger quantity than drops. There are no dairy animals on that
island. Their nutrition is provided by their oat products and fish, and by a very limited amount of
vegetable foods. Lobsters and flat fish are a very important part of their foods. Fruits are
practically unknown. Yet the physiques of these people are remarkably fine. It was necessary sometimes for us to engage skilled seamen and their crafts to make a special
trip to some of these isolated islands. These seamen watch critically the tide, wind and sky, and
determine the length of time it will be safe to travel in a certain direction under conditions existing in
the speed of the running tide and the periodic change of the wind. Some of the islands are isolated
by severe weather conditions for many months of the year. These islands have been important in the whaling industry, even up to recent years. We visited a
whaling station on the Isle of Harris, not active at this time, where monsters of the sea were towed
into a deep bay. In the interior of the Isle of Lewis the teeth of the growing boys and girls had a very high degree
of perfection, with only 1. 3 teeth out of every hundred examined that had even been attacked by
dental caries. An important part of the study of these islands was the observations made on conditions at the
fringe of civilization. A typical cross-section of the residents of the seaport town of Stornoway can
be seen assembled on the docks to greet the arrival of the evening boat, the principal event of the
community. The group consists largely of adult young people. In a count of one hundred individuals
appearing to be between the ages of twenty and forty, twenty-five were already wearing artificial
teeth, and as many more would have been more presentable had they too been so equipped. Dental caries was very extensive in the modernized section of Stornoway. Since an important part
of these studies involved a determination of the kinds and quantities of foods eaten, it was
necessary to visit the sources available for purchasing foods in each town studied. In Stornoway,
one could purchase angel food cake, white bread, as snow white as that to be found in any
community in the world, many other white-flour products; also, canned marmalades, canned
vegetables, sweetened fruit juices, jams, confections of every type filled the store windows and
counters. These foods probably made a great appeal both because of their variety and their high
sugar content to the pallets of these primitive people. The difference in physical appearance of the
child life of Stornoway from that of the interior of the Isle of Lewis was striking. We found a family
on the opposite coast of the island where the two boys shown in the upper half of Fig. 6 resided. One had excellent teeth and the other had rampant caries. These boys were brothers eating at the
same table. The older boy, with excellent teeth, was still enjoying primitive food of oatmeal and
oatcake and sea foods with some limited dairy products. The younger boy, seen to the left, had
extensive tooth decay. Many teeth were missing including two in the front. He insisted on having
white bread, jam, highly sweetened coffee and also sweet chocolates. His father told me with deep
concern how difficult it was for this boy to get up in the morning and go to work. 7/29/13 Nutrition and Physical Degeneration
gutenberg. net. au/ebooks02/0200251h. html#toc 36/250FIG. 6. Above: brothers, Isle of Harris. The younger at left uses
modern food and has rampant tooth decay. Brother at right uses
native food and has excellent teeth. Note narrowed face and arch of
younger brother. Below: typical rampant tooth decay, modernized
Gaelic. Right: typical excellent teeth of primitive Gaelic. One of the sad stories of the Isle of Lewis has to do with the recent rapid progress of the white
plague. The younger generation of the modernized part of the Isle of Lewis is not showing the
same resistance to tuberculosis as their ancestors. Indeed a special hospital has been built at
Stornoway for the rapidly increasing number of tubercular patients, particularly for girls between
twenty and thirty years of age. The superintendent told me with deep concern of the rapidity with
which this menace is growing. Apparently very little consideration was being given to the change in
nutrition as a possible explanation for the failure of this generation to show the defense of previous
generations against pulmonary tuberculosis. In this connection much blame had been placed upon
the housing conditions, it being thought that the thatched-roof house with its smoke-laden air was
an important contributing factor, notwithstanding the fact that former generations had been free
from the disease. I was told that the incidence of tuberculosis was frequently the same in the
modern homes as it was in the thatched-roof homes. It was of special interest to observe the
mental attitude of the native with regard to the thatched-roof house. Again and again, we saw the
new house built beside the old one, and the people apparently living in the new one, but still
keeping the smoke smudging through the thatch of the old thatched-roof house. When I inquired
regarding this I was told by one of the clearthinking residents that this thatch collected something
from the smoke which when put in the soil doubled the growth of plants and yield of grain. He
showed me with keen interest two patches of grain which seemed to demonstrate the soundness of
his contention. I was particularly interested in studying the growing boys and girls at a place called Scalpay in
the Isle of Harris. This Island is very rocky and has only small patches of soil for available
pasturage. For nutrition, the children of this community were dependent very largely on oatmeal
porridge, oatcake and sea foods. An examination of the growing boys and girls disclosed the fact
that only one tooth out of every hundred examined had ever been attacked by tooth decay. The
general physical development of these children was excellent, as may be seen in the upper half of
Fig. 7. Note their broad faces.
They failed to obtain transportation to visit the islands of Taransay and Scarpa on the west coast of the Isle of Harris.
Where did the author fail to obtain transportation to visit some of the islands?
The people on Taransay and Scarpa do not have dairy products in their diet, and instead consume oatmeal porridge, oatcake, and fish. Their diet is free of tooth decay and has contributed to their remarkable physical health.
What is the diet of the people on Taransay and Scarpa, and how does it affect their physical health?
The children on the Isle of Bardsey have a high degree of tooth decay, while those in the hamlet of Tarbert on the Isle of Harris have a very low incidence of tooth decay.
What is the difference in the physical appearance of the children on the Isle of Bardsey and those in the hamlet of Tarbert on the Isle of Harris?
The Eskimos who have never had contact with modern foods have broad faces and excellent dental arches, while those who have adopted a modern diet have narrow faces and deformed dental arches.
What is the difference in the physical appearance of the Eskimos who have never had contact with modern foods and those who have adopted a modern diet?
The Director of the hospital stated that the demand for beds at the hospital had changed significantly, with maternity-related issues becoming a major concern, as the young mothers are often brought to the hospital after being in labor for days.
What is the main issue with the Eskimos who have adopted a modern diet, according to the Director of the hospital at Brantford, Ontario?