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Show HRDLICKA] TUBERCULOSIS AMONG CERTAIN INDIAN TRIBES 3 peared. Since 1900 inquiries as to the disease have also been made among the various tribes of the Southwestern states and northern Mexico by the writer. In 1904, under the auspices of the Indian Office, he collected from its physicians information as to the morbidity due to tuberculosis among all the Indians of the United States. The results of these studies have recently appeared as Bulletin 34 of the Bureau of American Ethnology. At the beginning of last summer a further step was taken by the Indian Office in calling on its physicians for statistics as to the morbidity and mortality due to tuberculosis among the Indians during the fiscal year 1907- 8. Finally, in preparation for the Sixth International Congress on Tuberculosis, the Indian Office and the Smithsonian Institution united in asking the writer to formulate a plan for a brief, direct research into the subject in a number of selected tribes, and detailed him, with Dr. P. B. Johnson, bacteriologist, to carry out the investigation. The results of this were presented to the congress in the form of an exhibit and a preliminary communication, and are detailed • more fully in this paper. II. MORBIDITY AND MORTALITY The most extensive data concerning the prevalence of tuberculosis among the Indians are ( 1) the census reports, ( 2) the above- mentioned statistics on the morbidity due to tuberculosis, collected by the writer from physicians in the Indian Service in 1904, and ( 3) the statistics on mortality from the disease gathered by the Indian Office during the present year ( 1908). No one of these series of data is perfectly accurate, particularly with regard to the larger reservations, where it is impossible for the physician to know of all the cases. Still, they are sufficiently valuable to deserve publication in this connection. The data on the morbidity due to tubercular conditions included 91 acceptable reports, dealing with an Indian population of 107,000 individuals. These reports recorded 2,836 cases of the disease, divided as follows: pulmonary tuberculosis, 1,038; tuberculosis of bones and joints, 208; glandular tuberculosis, 1,590; or to every 100 cases of pulmonary tuberculosis there were 20 cases of tuberculosis of bones and joints and 153 of the glandular variety. The proportion of the several forms of the disease to the population was as follows: Cases per 1,000. Pulmonary tuberculosis 9. 7 Tuberculosis of bones and joints 1. 95 Glandular tuberculosis 15.0 The detailed data are subjoined. Following these are the 1908 statistics on the mortality from tuberculosis, which are doubtless of greater accuracy than the previous ones. The two series, however, show a fair general agreement. |