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The Arctic Hospital 39fore the hospital was really open, was anold-timer of the Yukon who had frozenboth his feet severely, a case that calledfor long detention and much tedious, carefulsurgery. The second white patientthat I recall was a very striking case, awoman whose head was nearly cut off byfalling against a revolving saw; fortunately,despite the fearful lacerations ofthough I think his restoration to healthwas due as much to the long journey inthe open air as to the treatment at thehospital. Last summer a woman takensuddenly ill on a steamboat was broughtashore on a stretcher, and the captainsaid: "Thank God for this hospital; Ithought she would have died on my boat."Nine-tenths of the work done by theThe professional staff.her neck, the great blood-vessels were notsevered, and, to the astonishment of everyone, she recovered. I shall never forgetthe ghastly sight as she was borne to thehospital on a door; she looked as MaryQueen of Scots might have looked had theexecutioner fumbled his blow and a reprievearrived before another could begiven—her gray hair all dabbled in herblood. Early last spring an explorer,suffering from complications following along siege of typhoid fever, was hauled400 miles or so by a dog-sled from thearctic coast, and when he was entirely recoveredhe told me that he believed hewould have died had he not come here;hospital is, however, native work; andjust as soon as one begins to talk aboutnative hospital work, tuberculosis thrustsup its ugly head, above all accidents,above all diseases whatever, for it is thescourge of Alaska just as it is the scourgeof our great cities. Of the 90 deaths recordedsince our resident physician,Doctor Grafton Burke, came to Fort Yukon,46 are set down as due to tuberculosisin some form or other, with suspicion ofthe same in other cases, so that we maysay that there are more deaths from tuberculosisthan from all other causes puttogether.Whether or not this disease were known