288 CONARD ET AL. 6. Other Findings Common to Both Exposed and Unexposed Marshallese a. Nutrition. The diet of the Rongelap people is extremely limited in variety, although the caloric intake appears to be adequate. They appear to maintain satisfactory nutritional status without gross vitamin deficiency, except that at the time of the 4-vear examinations about 12 children were found to have mild night blindness. This defect was corrected with vitamin A therapy. b. Diseases. The paucity of findings associated with degenerative diseases in the Marshallese people is striking. Although the population examined is too small to permit any valid statistical analysis, the clinical impression is that diseases such as atherosclerosis and hypertension are considerably less commonand of less severity than in a comparable group of our population. Electrocardiographic tracings revealed a lowincidence of positive findings, and the general age appearance of the tracings is younger than would be expected. This is in contrast to the general impression that these people age more quickly and possibly have a shorter life span. Noeases of malignancy have been seen in the populations underdiscussion. There has been a general feeling that conditions such as peptic ulcer, hernia, varicose veins, hemorrhoids, and vaginal prolapse are much less common than one might anticipate in examining a random group of people of similar age in our society. One interesting finding has been the high incidence of kyphoscoliosis. The cause is not apparent. Skin infections, particularly with tenia versicolor and impetigenous lesions in children, have been quite prevalent, though dermatophytosis of the feet has been of low incidence. Extensive dental caries was commonly found. c. Congenital anomalies. The incidence of congenital anomalies is believed to be higher than found in Americans. The increase may be due to the fact that these people have been living in a relatively isolated area for some 2000 years with prevalent consanguineous matings. d, Laboratory findings of interest. Hosinophilia is prevalent. As pointed out, about half of the people have greater than 5% eosinophils in their differential counts. An intestinal parasite survey at the 4-year study revealed stools positive for various parasites in about 80 to 85 % of the people. Hookworm wasthe only parasite noted, however, which is generally associated with eosinophilia; but the incidence was too low (about 2% of the people) to account for the generally high eosinophil counts. The prevalence of skin diseases may be partly responsible. Another possibility is that the incidence of trichinosis infestation may be high. (Pigs are used for meat, and rats are numerous on the island.) This will be a subject. of further study. The low incidence of hookworm would not account for the low hematocrit readings. In fact, there was no correlation in individuals between hematocrit, parasite infestation, and eosinophilia. The tendency toward low hematocrits may be related to nutritional deficiency of iron or proteins, but there is no good evidence that these factors are involved. These people generally showhigh total serum protein lerels (mean of 8 gm) with