siOBX; - Smithsonian Institution

234 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 103
The diseases from which they suffered and the commoner methods
of treating them are thus described by Cushman
Diseases, they believed, originated in part from natural causes, therefore
their doctors sought in nature for the remedies. Graver maladies, to them,
were inexplicable, and for their cures they resorted to their religious super-
stitions and incantations. They were very skillful in their treatment of
wounds, snake bites, etc. Their knowledge of the medicinal qualities of their
various plants and herbs, in which their forests so bountifully abounded,
was very great. 'Tis true they were powerless against the attacks of many
diseases—importations of the White Race, such as smallpox, measles, whooping-
cough, etc. ; yet, they did not exhibit any greater ignorance in regard to
those new diseases, to them unknown before, than do the doctors of the White
Race, who have had the experience of ages which has been handed down to
them through the art of printing, manifest in regard to the new diseases that
so oft attack their own race. The art of blood-letting and scarifying was
well understood and practiced by many of tteir doctors, as well as the virtue
of cold and warm baths ; and in many of the healing arts they fell not so
far below those of the White Race as might be supposed, though many white
doctors imagine themselves perfect in the healing art, since forsooth their
dipolmas boast the signatures of the medical faculties in the world.
In cases of bowel affections they use persimmons dried by the heat of the
sun and mixed with a light kind of bread. In case of sores, they applied a
poultice of pounded ground ivy for a few days, then carefully washing the
afflicted part with the resin of the copal-tree which proved very efHcacious;
to produce a copious perspiration, a hot decoction of the China root swallowed,
had the desired effect. They possessed an antidote for the bite and sting
of snakes and insects, in the root of a plant called rattle snake's master,
having a pungent yet not unpleasant odor. The root of tlie plant was chewed,
and also a poultice made of it was applied to the wound, which at once checked
the poison and the patient was well in a few days. The medical properties
of the sassafras, sarsaparilla, and other medicinal plants, were known to them.
They possessed many valuable secrets to cure dropsy, rheumatism, and many
other diseases, which, no doubt, will ever remain a secret with them, proving
that their powers of observation, investigation and discrimination, are not,
by any means, to be regarded as contemptible ; while their belief, that the
Great Spirit has provided a remedy in plants for all diseases to which poor
humanity seems an heir, and never refuses to make it known to those who
seek the knowledge of it by proper supplications, is praiseworthy in them to
say the least of it.^'
The greatest mortality among them was generally confined to the younger
children ; while longevity was a prominent characteristic among the adults.
After the age of six or eight years the mortality of disease among them was less
than among the white children of the present day after that age. But after
those baneful diseases, scarlet fever, measles, mumps, whooping-cough, diseases
unknown to them before, had been introduced among them, the fatality among
the children was distressing, frequently destroying the greater number of
children in a village or neighborhood ;—being wholly ignorant as they were
of the proper mode of treatment was a great cause of the fearful fatality.
Mental or nervous diseases were unknown to the ancient Choctaws ; and
idiocy and deformity were seldom seen. But of all the " diseases " intro-
^7 Cushman, Hist. Inds., pp. 22S-229.