Albuquerque morning journal. [volume] (Albuquerque, N.M.) 1903-1926, 1918-12-26
Negro Medicines

From the Railway Surgical Journal
we abstract some negro practices for
the cure of diseases.
For Fever--Burn feathers from a
Dominique chicken under the bed An
onion placed against the post will
draw the fever out. a sack of onions
on the bed will draw the fever out of
the patient.
For night sweats-Put a rusty ak
edge or basin of water under the
bed.
For sore threats of any kind-Tie o
string or tuft of hair on the crown of
the head and null until the scalp
pops. The theory is that in sore
throat the palate is down and the in
dlcation is to pull it up.
For fits--Give the patient one drop
of his own blood drawn from the tip
of the little finger of the left hand
When the new moon begins, have the
subject draw little blood from his
hand and swallow it. This must be
done for nine mornings in succession.
For nosebleed-Tie a string around
the little finger. Snuff old cohwebs
up the nose, The kind with SCOT on it
is the best. Put a scent piece under
the palate Of the tongue. Bore a
small hole in a tree, get a green peg.
put little blood from the patient S
nose on this peg, and then drive the
neg into the hole and cut 1t off short
When this neg has been covered over
with the bark of the tree the patients
nose will bleed no more
For warts there are multitude of
cures, Steal piece of bacon, rub on
the wart, roll up in a nice piece of
paper, drop It on the ground. AS the
meat perishes so viii the wart. Pick
wart until it bleeds, touch it with
nine grains of corn. ard then throw
corn to the chickens. Take ten
penny nail, so to the woods in the
morning before sun up, drive the nail
into a tree. Hit the nail once each
morning for nine successive mornings
For diarrhoea-Make a tea of peach
tree bark, from the limb toward the
trunk, and for vomiting use the same
remedy except that the bark must be
stripped beginning at the trunk end
of the limb. If there is both vomiting
and purgng the bark must be stripped
from both ends at the same time.
AS Dr. Letcher says we laugh in
diligently at these remedies. We even
indorse some of them on the quiet,
Many intelligent men carry buckeyes
for rheumatism and many others tie
strings around their fingers for nose
bleed, We even admire the happy go
lucky philosophy of the negro. 1t has
carried him over many rough places
1--WE come into this world naked and
bare;
We go through the world With trouble
and care;
We go out of the world nobody knows
where, @
But II we do well here we will do
well there"
A bit of negro philosophy represents
certain directions.
Bat the examining surgeons tell us
that the negro recruits are in bad
shape physically on the average. A
large percentage of them have in
Cured transmissible diseases They
are badly in need of medical atten-
ton. Getting them into shape is ex-
pensive for the government They
are careless and indifferent, good ma
tured and happy, even though they
suffer from uncured diseases. The
statements of the examining surgeons
is unquestionably correct, But If our
policy toward the negro and the me-
gro's disease has been found to be
expensive when the army pays the
bills, IS it not probable that it is still
more expensive for the civilian popu-
lation? A few of the young men go
to the army All the women and chill
dren and most of the men remain on
the farms. in the factories, and else.
where In the civilian community,
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