The New Eldorado: A Summer Journey to AlaskaBallou, Maturin M. (Maturin Murray)
History
The New Eldorado: A Summer Journey to Alaska
Ballou, Maturin M. (Maturin Murray)
Alaska -- Description and travel; West (U.S.) -- Description and travel
Twenty miles south of Sitka, on the same island, there are a number of
hot springs, strongly impregnated with iron and sulphur, the sanitary
nature of which has been known to the Indians for centuries, and hither
they have been in the habit of resorting for the cure of certain
physical ills, especially rheumatism, to which they are so liable.
Vegetation in the neighborhood of these springs is tropical. The
temperature of the water is said to be 155° Fah. At the time of the
Russian possession the whites built bath-houses on the spot, and much
was made of this sanitarium. But all is now neglected, except that the
natives still occasionally resort to the place to enjoy the tonic and
recuperating effect of the waters. Anything which will promote
cleanliness among the Alaskan tribes must be unquestionably of benefit
to them. There are plenty of hot mineral springs all over the various
island groups of the Territory, and especially that portion which makes
out from the Alaska Peninsula westward towards Asia. The most fatal
diseases prevailing among the aborigines after consumption are
scrofulous affections; the latter is thought to be aggravated, if not
induced, by their almost exclusive fish diet, supplemented by their
gross uncleanliness. The Aleuts of the south, the Eskimos of the north,
and the natives generally of the coast and the interior sleep and live
in such dark, dirty, unventilated quarters, reeking with vile odors,
that they cannot fail to poison their blood and thus induce a myriad of
ills. As we have said, none of these natives seem to have any
intelligent idea of medicine, and they do not possess any herbs, so far
as we could learn, which are used for medicinal purposes. If a native is
furnished with a prescription after the manner of the whites, he
requires at least twice the amount of medicine which it is customary to
give to a white man, otherwise the dose will have no apparent effect
upon his system. This is a never varying experience which medical men
have found repeated among all savage races.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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