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Show COMMISIONER 03' INDIAN AFFAIRS. 5 The doctor who lectures has also given each agency and school he has visited a complete sanitary inspection and has operatad upon 192 eases of trachoma. In this way he supplements the work of the medid supervisor and of the phpicians who are specially engaged with trachoma. One of the most important purposes of the sanitary inspection given schools and agencies has been a real beginning in eliminating toilet and bath rooms from basements. As fast as possible all plumb-ing is being installed above grade in separate structures connwted with the main building through covered passages. The removal from basements of rooms used by students for any purpose whatever will mark a distinct sanitary advantage; and the abolition of half-underground playrooms, the gloomy cheerless atmosphere of which is utterly antagonistic to any spirit of healthful play, will accomplish much more by freeing the children from most deprassing influences. The field matrons in the midst of their varied activities both pre-pare the way for physicians and augment their service. They are peculiarly able to give directions that reduce the high mortality among infants, and mitigate the severity of children's diseases. By way of illustration, the superintendent of Southern Ute, Colo., re-ports a very much lass percentage of deaths among children than in former years, with a resulting increase in the census roll; this change he credits to the matron assigned to that territory. As another preventive measure, orders have been issued that every effort be made to vaccinate Indians not immune from smallpox-heretofore a recurring scourge, particularly in the Southwest. The returns show that many Indians submitted to vaccination, and that by tad and persistence vaccination will soon become so common as to remove the p~esent peril. It happens that there have been fewer epidemics of smallpox than usual. The only deaths during the cur-rent epidemics were one at Southern Ute and four at Shoshoni. The most serious disease imperiling the Indians is tuberculosis, which, under improper living conditions, has produced a very high mortality. The percentage of Indians infected varies greatly; per-haps the extremes may be represented by the Navajo Springs Reser-vation, Colo., where in a population of nearly 500 there are no active oases, and the Fort Lapwai Rmrvation, Idaho, where there is scarcelv a family in a population of over 1,400 which has not one or more ;embers affected - This disease is being attacked in all practicable ways. In addi- 1 tion to the preventive measures which the service is endeavoring to put into effect everywhere, the office is enlarging its four sanatoria; 1 the one at Phoenix, hie., will now accommodate 65 patients; the one at Laguna, N. Mex., 25 patients; and the Fort Lapwai Boarding School, Idaho, which is being made entirely into a sanatorium, will |