The Opelousas courier., 1892-08-06
NO WONDER THEY PERISH
SOME TERRIBLE REMEDIES USED,
BY BARBARTANS.

Diagnosis in Siam.
Va r O matter how much OF how lit
tie encouragement missionaries
" meet in spreading the Gospel
y among heather, their efforts to
introduce science are nearly always
crowned with success. The worshipery
of idols or the follower of Mahomet will
resent ally effort on your part to interfere
with his idea OF a future life; but If you
can show him anything which he con-
| siders will ameliorate his present condi-I
ton, he is eager to adopt 1t. And the.
branch of science which appeals to him
more quickly than any other, perhaps,
is the healing art, medicine, surgery.
Missionaries all over the worAa have
grasped this idea now, for ex. &rieneei
has taught them that all doors are open
to the doctor.
In one of the central provinces of In,
dia not long ago measles broke out among
the natives shortly after the arrival of
two women missionaries from America,
Children were soon dying in such num-
bers that the missionaries wished they
had learned something about medicine
be ore they came. They knew, however,
that children with measles should be kept
warm and not allowed to run any risk
of catching cold. The mortality caused
by so simple a disease, as they had known
it, astounded them, and they made in
quiries as to how the little patients were
treated. 1t was in the rainy season, and
they found that these poor people
thought the best way to cure measles
was TO strip the babies perfectly naked,
and hold them out in the cold rain till
the water should wash all the measles
eruption off the skin. No wonder they
died. A fatal chill struck the frail,
fevered, little body, and the mother
could only moan and beat herself in de-
spair.
In Siam, when one falls sick, the doc
tors diagnosis of the disease is a serious
matter. He generally comes with his
mind fully made up that the patient is
possessed of an evil spirit. To find just
where the booy this evil spirit lies is the
diagnosis. The doctor takes a tigers
tooth from his pouch. The tooth is d
long canine one, sharpened to a needle
point. This he jabs into the sick nan
in various spots. If the sick man yells
with pain more loudly when he is pune
tured here than he does when is pune
tured there, then the evil one turks here. |
Preparations are made to drive him out,
but generally the patients spirit deserts
the tortured body before the imaginary |
one. !
In Africa d young missionary. whos
went out from this city some time ago,
penetrated far into the interior, where no
white man had ever been seen before.
The tribe had a curious tradition that
some day a white man would come to
them and do wonderful things for them.
So they built a hut, the best kind they
knew how to construct, to have it ready
for the paleface when he should arrive.
When this ardent young American sud-
IDENTIFY appeared l. day, they welcomed
him with open arms. To say that he
was surprised, is putting it mildly. The
day two women came to him. each
with a child in her arms, and besought
him to cure them. He looked at the
babes and found they were dead. He
told them he could do nothing for dead
babes, and thereby at once fell off con-
siderably in their estimation. He asked
what had been done for the. children,
and was told that their bodies had been
scored with sharp stones to let the evil
spirit out. He counted ON one little
body 400 cuts, and then there were more.
Those mothers loved their children pas
sionately. Fancy what pain they under
while iniicting agony on theft
babies in the vain hope of doing them
good.
Some idea of the manner 10 which
are treated may be gained from
the following thrilling narrative. Mrs.
Peoples writing from Siam, says:
.'Two of their number became crazy,
ind as was their superstitious custom,
were tied up for a time, but as they
grew no better they were taken out and
buried alive, in spite of their cries and
pleading. There are thousands and
sAOUodlAS DOu4O III Juob SuIA AOEIlUt@ 1
;uperstitions all around u.s.
Another writer from Korea, to ttThe
Medical Missionary Record, " says:
"The establishment of the native
loctor is quite equal to that of the patients
the foreign surgeons coolly and
arefully sewers the living tissues with
lis keen knife or unites them with needle
silk. / was intensely amused last
Teek by the open mouthed wonder of a
roup OF soldiers and chair bearers who
tood about the door of my drug-room
0 see me tie a squirting artery and bring
ogether the gaping edges of a wound
ncurred by n of their comrades. {
,qual interest and amazement are dis (
upon every use of my po~cket-case.
,lmost every wound brought to me to !
ress has been previously plastered with |
lud or with some powder supposed to 9
healing properties, and my first
in treatment must be to clense the
art of its filthy membranes. The
ght of blood for which he is responsible
ute unuerves the Korean, and he looks
it'll awe upon the termerity- Of the
who works en- coolly amid in
streams Of the red liquid which \
himself draws and which he seems
Die to stanch at will. 4
ttSo IL is that the Koreans have IN
confidence in foreign surgical I
r;19 Thnu 1~,ol;ava +hn4 - !,