Evening Republican, Volume 23, Number 155, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 June 1920 — GUARD HEALTH OF GREENLAND [ARTICLE]

GUARD HEALTH OF GREENLAND

Elaborate Precautions Against the Introduction of Contagious Diseases Into That Country. • There has not been a case of contagious disease In Greenland since 1825, according to an article In the Wide World magazine by Roger Pocock. the last being one of smallpox 95 years ago. The reason for this Is not, as would at first seem probable, that the severe cold makes the natives Immune, but to a directly opposite cause. The microbes even such mild diseases as measles and Influenza are so deadly'in this northern island, epidemics wiping out entire tribes, that the government of Den* mark, which owns the island, has forbidden all commerce with the natives except by certain accredited agents. So strict is this rule that all who visit Greenland —clergy, doctors, mechanics, tradesmen and marines—have to strip and submit to a medical examination before they are allowed to land. Liquor also has been found to have a serious effect and all persons in the “Royal Trade,” as It Is called, are sworn to give no liquor to the natives. This, says the writer, is perhaps the reason that while the Eskimo tribes of Alaska, Siberia, Canada and Labrador are rapidly dying out, the Greenlanders show a steady Increase In number.