The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1893-03-25
INDIAN SURGERY.

J
/ egg. JOHN T. ECKHARDT.
INDIAN SURGERY
| How tho Red Men Perform Operation
With Their Rude Instruments.
If, in the depths of tho forest, an In
! dian breaks his leg or arm (said DR..
| Kingston in his address at the British
Medical Association meeting at Not
| tingham), splints of softest material
are at once improvised. Straight
branches are cut of uniform length and
thickness These are lined with down
like moss or scrapings or shavings OF
wood, or with fine twigs interlaid with
leaves, If in summer; or with the
curled-up leaves of the evergreen, cedar
or hemlock if in tho winter; and the
whole is surrounded with whites OF
willow or osier or young birch. Occa-
sionally it is the soft but sufficiently I'M.
yielding bark of the popular or the bass
wood. Sometimes, when near the
marshy margins of our lakes or rivers,
the wounded limb is afforded support
with wild hay or reeds of uniform
length and thickness.
To carry patient to his wigwam o.
to an encampment o stretcher is quickly
made OF four young saplings, interviewer
at their upper ends, and on this elastic,
springy couch the injured man Is borne
away by his companions. When there
are but two persons and an accident
happens to ono of them, two young
trees of birch or beech or hickory are
used. Their tops are allowed to remain
to aid in diminishing the jolting caused
by the inequalities of tho ground. No
London carriagemaker ever constructed
a spring which could better accomplish
the purpose. A couple of crossbars
preserve the saplings in position, and
the bark of the elm or birch cut in to
broad bands and joined to either aide
forms an even bed.
In this way an injured man is
brought by his companion to a settle
ment, and often it has been found on
arrival that the fractured bones are
firmly united and che limb is whole
again. This is effected in less time
than with the whites, for the reparat,vo
power of these children of the forest is
remarkable. In their plentitude of
health. osseous matter is poured out in
large quantity, and firm union is soon
effected.
The reparative power Of tho abort
gines when injured is equalled by the
wonderful stoicism with which they
bear injuries and infiict upon them
selves the severest torture. They. are
accustomed to cut into Assesses with
pointed flint; they light mp a fire at q
distance from tho affected part four
counter-irritaAon); they amputat .
limbs with their hunting knives, check
ing the hemorhagc with heated
stones, as surgeons were accustomed to
do in Europe IN the time of Ambrose
Pare, and sometimes they amputate
their own limbs with more sang froid
than many young surgeons will display
when operating on others. The stumps
of limbs amputated in this primitive
manner arc we'll formed, for neatness
handiwork
The aborigires are familiar with and
practise extensively the use of warm
lamentations. In every tribe their old
women are credited with the possession
of knowledge of local bathing with
hot water and of medicated decoctions.
The herbs they use are known to a
privileged few and enhance the con-
siderstion in which their possessors are
held.
The Turkish bath, in simpler but
not less effective form, is well known to
them. If one Of their tribe suffers from
fever or from the effects of long ex-
posure to cold. steam bath is readily
improvised. The tent of deerskin is
tightly closed, the patient is placed in
one corner, heated stones are placed
near him, and on these water is poured
TIL the confined air Is saturated with
vapor. Any degree of heat and any
degree of moisture can be obtained in
this way. Europeans often avail them
selves Of this powerful sudatory when
suffering from rheumatism
The aborigines have their herbs
few, not many. They have their emet-
les and laxatives, astringents and emol-
lisnts, all of which are profe-ed to the
suffering without fee or reward. The
Indian teas" Indian bslsams" and
other Indian 'cure-slls"-the virtues of
which it sometimes takes columns Of
the daily journals to chronicle-are not
theirs To the white man is left this
species of deception.-Pan Mall Gazette