This disease was not reported among early Indians, but there is a report of an Indian cure of a white patient suffering from it. According to Charlevoix:
A French soldier....in Acadia, was seized with the Epilepsy, and the fits were become almost daily and extremely violent: an Indian woman who happened to be present at one of his fits, made him two boluses of a pulverised root, the name of which she did not disclose, and desired that one might be given him at his next fit, told him that he would sweat much, and that he would have large evacuations both by vomiting and by stool, and added, that if the first bolus did not entirely cure him, the second certainly would: the thing happenned as she had foretold; the patient had, indeed, a second fit, but this was his last. He from that day enjoyed perfect state of health.- Journal, I. 161.
For paralysis, of whatever origin, some South American Indians used the mild shock of the electric eel - Humboldt, Personal Narrative, II, 119
No comments:
Post a Comment