James C. White

"First, we may endeavor to ascertain through reliable travelers, missionaries, many of whom are educated in medicine, and resident physicians, what diseases of the skin prevail in extraordinary frequency, severity of type, or unusual form among tribes or communities, where a restricted diet of any kind has been long followed. Thus, among the natives of the northwest coast, fresh salmon forms the only food for several months, and dried or smoked salmon the exclusive or larger part for the rest of the year. The Eskimo lives almost wholly on blubber and raw meat, and other northern people mainly on pemmican. The inhabitants of some immense inland plains subsist almost entirely on fresh beef or mutton. Some tribes find their nourishment in the milk of animals. Millions of eastern people have no other diet than rice and a little fat."