Disease and Illnesses

Friendly to whites most of his life, Mandan Chief Four Bears (in an 1832 portrait by George Catlin) turned bitter as death approached, blaming them for the disease that would kill him.

Tribal Fever

Twenty-five years ago this month, smallpox was officially eradicated. For the Indians of the high plains, it came a century and a half too late

None

Special Delivery

In the 1900s, health officials believed that puncturing supposedly disease-infested mail and then fumigating it slowed the spread of illness

"I had a bunch of birds that had died of encephalitis at the same time people had encephalitis," says Tracey McNamara (in her Bronx apartment), a veterinary pathologist formerly at the Bronx Zoo. She helped link the virus to the 1999 epidemic.

On the Trail of the West Nile Virus

Some scientists race to develop vaccines against the scourge while others probe the possible lingering effects of the mosquito-borne infection

None

Mission Impossible?

An international campaign to rid the world of polio has made dazzling progress. But some experts question whether the scourge can ever be eradicated

Seabiscuit

Betting on Seabiscuit

Laura Hillenbrand beat the odds to write the hit horse-racing saga while fighting chronic fatigue syndrome, a disorder starting to reveal its secrets

Page 37 of 37