Untitled - Smithsonian Institution

OlbrecIts] the swimmer MANUSCRIPT 57
another; it may mean anything from a minimum of 2 to a maximum
of 6 to 7 Hters a day. This appalling amount of liquid by itself is
often sufficient to account for the emetic results the Cherokee obtain
by the use of simples that are devoid of emetic properties.
A few words remain to be said about the animal and mineral
materia medica in use in Cherokee therapeutics.
Against rheumatism and stifTnoss in the joints eel oil (t^'^te^'ca
Go.i') is used. The oil is fried out of the animal in a frying pan.
The eel owes the honor of thus being admitted into the Cherokee
pharmacopoeia to its considerable suppleness and litheness.
Bear grease (yo*'no'' Go.i'), known to most of the North American
Indian tribes and extensively used in the Southeast, is likewise known
to the Cherokee. The rapidly progressing extinction of the bear in
the Great Smokies Avill, however, soon account for the untimely end
of this popular article.
A prescription against a disease that can only be identified as
tuberculosis specifies among otlier ingredients the brains of an otter,
mixed with "rock treacle," i. e., the moisture oozing out of the natural
fissures of a mossy rock.
Stones, especially worked and fashioned arrowheads, may be added
to the water in which roots and stems are put to boil, but they owe
their therapeutic value chiefly to the belief that "they will cut the
disease to pieces" in the patient's body. The stones and flints are,
of course, removed before the decoction is drunk.
Water enters into practically every remedy, in so far as it is used
to boil the other ingredients in. It usually has to be dipped out of
the river, to where, in some cases, it has to be taken back after use.
(See p. 68.) There are no specific instructions as to whether the
water has to be dipped "with the stream" or "against the stream"
as is so frequent in primitive medicine. One instance has come to
my knowledge where the water has to be taken from a cataract.
The use of snow water and of ice is common in treating cases of
frostbite.
"Stumpwater " is but rarely referred to, and its use, together with
the belief in its marvelous properties, may have been borrowed
from the whites.
Disposing of used ingredients.—As a rule proper care is taken to
dispose of the materia medica after its use ; it is never carelessly thrown
away, but is usually kept on outside shelves, with at least two of
which every cabin is provided. It is quite likely that formerly there
was a proper ceremony to dispose of these decocted barks and herbs,
bat although this has been lost, enough of the custom is remembered
to prevent the used ingredients from being thrown away as refuse.
A few fomiulas have directions appended to them, which direct
that the medicine, after its use, has to be "stored in a dry place,"
or has to be placed in a rock fissure with an appropriate formula.