ARCTIC DOCTOR

Evening Post, Volume CXVI, Issue 2, 3 July 1933, Page 9

ARCTIC DOCTOR

A HUGE TERRITORY

ESKIMOS AND INDIANS

(From "The Post's" Representative.) VANCOUVER, June 7. Iv Canada's farthest north, where mail aeroplanes roar over slow-moving parka-clad muskets of his Majesty's Dog Mail, a, lone doctor is introducing .modern medical methods. among the Eskimos and Indians with conspicuous success. It was in 1938 that Dr. James Urcpliart, graduate of the McGill and Edinburgh Universities, ex-soldier, and subsequently interne in a Hong ' Kong clinic, responded to an appeal for a medical man to deal with an influenza epidemic that was taking heavy toll of the natives in the North-west territories. His "round" of patients is now ,300,000 square miles, approximating the territory of the Pnnja.b, the Transvaal, the State of Victoria, or the whole of Jvew Zealand. It stretches from (he Arctic Red River to Herschcl Island, from Aklavik to Cambridge Tiny. Dr. 'L'rquhart reports that.the infan-

tile mortality rate among the Eskimos has been reduced enormously. Eskimo mothers, whose practice it. was to destroy their girl babies, because they would not grow up to be hunters, looked on the white doctor with suspicion, but now they cheerfully "mush" hundreds of miles to have their babies born in one of the two mission hospitals at Aklavik. The Eskimo and the Indian do not know the meaning of the word '•" diet." . Consequently, -health standards among the King's most northern subjects are today very high. Three Eskimo witch doctors made trouble at first, but Dr. Urquhart says he dealt with them firmly, and they now give no trouble. Eskimos have a wholesome respect for the great white Lord-King—the "Big Boss," as they call him-^who can send his red-coated police to see that his commands ara obeyed. By boat in summer, and by aeroplane and dog team in winter, Dr. Urquhart makes long trips from his. Aklavik headquarters'. The Eskimo metropolis near the mouth of the mighty Mackenzie boasts two well-equipped hospitals in the Anglican and Catholic Missions, as well as eight white families arid several hundred Eskimos and Indian.1-. Dr. Urquhart is superintendent of both hospitals, and performs many major find minor operation;!. At the Anglican Mission, is a- modern. X-ray machine, recently installed.