M .ORE than a decade ago Nepal opened her doors to the world. Since then, political, economic, and social changes have dispelled much of the former air of mystery, but the medical geography of the country remains little known. There are no organized morbidity and mortality reporting systems. Difficult terrain limits communication and study of the diseases of the inhabitants. Health services are not well developed, and hospitals and physicians are few.1 Even crude morbidity data for the major diseases are available for only one or two large population centers. With this situation in mind the writer records herein certain medical observations made while serving as physician for the 1959 American Himalayan Expedition in central Nepal. This expedition, concerned principally with geographical exploration, geology and mountaineering, was in Nepal from mid-September until the beginning of December 1959. For seven weeks the members lived and worked in and around two little-explored ranges of the central Nepalese Himalayas, the Mukut Himal and the eastern Kanjiroba Himal (Fig. 1). Observations on disease along the expedition's route through the highlands complement those made in 1949 in adjacent lowlands and foothills of central Nepal by an ornithologic expedition sponsored by the Chicago Natural History Museum. The 1949 expedition crossed the India-Nepal border at Nautanwa (Fig. 1) and proceeded north through the gorges of the Kali Gandaki river to its sources near the Tibetan border, substantially the route followed by the 1959 expedition. The