Page:Korea (1904).djvu/311

Rh results of famine should be a general increase of mortality throughout the country. The impoverished condition, to which so many thousands of Koreans were reduced, weakened their constitutions so seriously that, in many cases, even those who were fortunate enough to escape starvation found their powers fatally impaired. There were many whose inanition and general debility, resulting from their deprivations, had rendered them peculiarly susceptible to disease. More particularly was this the case in the inland districts.

Under normal conditions, malaria is, perhaps, the most common disease in Korea. It prevails in all parts of the country, but it is specifically localised in sections where there are numerous rice-fields. Small-pox is nearly always present, breaking out in epidemic form every few years. Nearly all adults, and most children over ten years, will be found to have had it. Leprosy is fairly prevalent in the southern provinces, but it spreads very slowly. While this disease presents all the characteristics described in the text-books, the almost imperceptible increase, which distinguishes its existence in Korea, is strong presumptive evidence that it is non-infectious.

The great enemy of health is the tubercle bacillus. The want of ventilation, the absence of sanitation, and the smallness of the houses, foster this little germ. Tubercular and joint diseases are common; also fistula, hare-lip, diseases of the eye, throat and ear. The most common disease of the eye is cataract; of the ear, suppuration of the middle drum, in the great majority of cases the result of small-pox in childhood. Cases of nasal polypi are also very numerous. Hysteria is fairly common, while epilepsy and paralysis are among other nervous disorders which are encountered.