Daily inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1881-1901, 1899-07-21

49, %
tiger is his massive backbone. Hence. il
only a small portion of this be admins
tered to the patient. in the form of a
powder or pill, his cure ought certainly
to be only . matter of minutes. |
Even this simple train of reasoning
must, however, go down before the
rough-and-ready methods of the South
Sea islanders. With them the appear
ance of a pain is invariably regarded as
Il sign that some evil hunlor is trying to
work it's way through the hesh. Inc
remedy is simplicity itself: it consists or
a good. deep iab with a spear head in the
seat of the pain-"in ORDER to let it out
Should, however, the pain proceed from
q spreading sore it is usual to amputate
the limb. This Spartan-like operation is
performed with a sharp clam shell, ana,
needless to say. without the employment
of any anaesthetic. Should the unfor-
tunate patient be suffering from dementia
he is promptly buried alive-a striking
contrast to the practice obtaining with
most of the African tribes, among whom
the insane are generally regarded in the
light of inspired prophets, whose persons
must be held sacred at all cost.
Many years ago it used to be the fash
ion among witches to make wax figures
of those they wished to injure, and to
pierce these harmless efiigies with needles
in whatever direction they wished the
icJNt VI eAAtiA NINhi'' w ~ AN ~
cial inconvenience. A curious edition of
this idea exists to the present day among
the Dakota Indians. A model of the SICK
mans disease is fashioned from soft wood
and placed in a pool OF water. The banks
of the pool are then lined by sympa-
thetic braves" who vie with each other
in their efforts to shoot the offending
! model to pieces. simultaneously with the
disappearance of the model the original
pain is supposed to vanish. At any rate,
all that is left Of it after this drastic pro-
ceeding is believed to exist only in the
imagination of the victim; a pleasant little
fallacy that must be exceedingly comfort
! ing TO a man with a raging toothache or
a equity toe.
Another curious but certainly effective
cure is that used by the Laps and Firms
for rheumatic affections. Having caught
a whale, they dig an opening in his side
and ilnmerse the sufferer up to his neck
in the warm blubber. The oil thus abb
Sorbed into the system is said not only to
counteract the acidity of the blood. but to
actually replace the missing lubricant in
the patients joints. Be that as it may,
the cure is certainly an accomplished fact.
not the least curious side of which lays
in it's extreme simplicity.
ii is from the Chinese that we practi-
cally borrowed that system Of dispens-
aries to which the poor man looks for his
ollCNol ~ lIIIJC ~ IA
lea the upper classes may pay the doctor
only when they consult him in case OF
sickness, whilst the poor man pays so
much a week whilst in health for free
medical attendance when he falls i'll. 1t
is the same in China. There, however,
everybody, from the highest in the land
down to the poorest cOOlie, pays the doc
tor a fixed salary so long as the patient
is we'll. AS soon as his health fails the
salary is stopped until the doctor has set
him righta agatha common sense prac-
tice that might with advantages be ex-
tended to our own dealings with the ia
Guilty.
a the patient ever does get Well af-
ter a course Of native dOctOling will pro-
badly be a matter for considerable sur
prise when the wonderful nature of some
Of the remediesgis examined. Here, for
instance, is an infallible Chinese remedy
which is always employed when the pa
tient is suffering. from disease (such as
scarlet fever, blood poisoning, or small
poX) the leading symptoms of which are
bad skin eruptions. The apothecary
brushes several precious gems, such as
ruties, pearls and emeralGs, into a fine
powder. He then adds various earths and
a small quantity of musk, and kneads the
whole into a paste, with THE aid Of vege-
table gum and rose water. The paste is
next rolled into pills, coated with gold
leaf and swallowed. Besides this treat
ment faith healing sinks into nothingness.
Russia is also interesting in the matter
of curious cures. Needless to say, the
upper classes are not involved in the in
stances given. The most common form
among the Russian peasantry generally
takes the shape of feveTs and ague. The
various types of these Affections are
popularity believed to be attributable to
the visitation Of IL invisible sisters, each
of whom represents a different degree of
seriousness. The precautions adopted in
order to ward eff these dread v.sitants are
at least original, ard occasionally even
heroic.
The remedies are directed against the
supposed antipathies of the sisterhood.
For instance, Sister No. 1, is greatly
afraid Of cutting herself; therefore the pa
tents bed must be surrounded with
every available scythe, adze, chisel, knife
md saw that the relatives can borrow or
otherwise gain possession of. The exor-
cism of Sister No. 2 is a far. more pleas
ant process, consisting as it does of dos
ing the patient with a peculiar form of
alcohol. Another sister objects to cold.
and is expelled by giving the patient "a
fever patient. mark YOU'D a cold bath,
while yet another can only be shifted by
the patient swallowing a large dose of
I~gunpowder.
pApE TpEEC