1911.] NATURAL SCIENCES OF PHILADELPHIA. 37 



where animals furnished the material used as medicine or otherwise 

 played a part in the treatment of disease. As one of the less involved 

 cases may be mentioned the procedure in securing rattlesnake oil used 

 for rheumatism. The person having secretly found a rattlesnake must 

 address it in some such way as this: "My good brother, you are 

 powerful; I wish you to help me." The rattlesnake must then be 

 killed by a single shot directed unerringly from bow or gun through 

 the head. The body of the snake was then opened and the fat stripped 

 from within the body into a receptacle, after which the body was 

 buried so as to be seen by no one else, as otherwise the virtue of the oil 

 would be destroyed. The same procedure must be repeated with each 

 snake used. Only when this method had been carefully followed 

 out was the oil when subsequently rubbed upon the affected organ 

 supposed to be curatively effective. As a second example may be 

 cited the procedure supposed by many to effect a cure of persistent 

 nose-bleed. The person affected must secretly take some of the blood 

 from his nose to the nest of the red or occidental ant (Pogonomyrmex 

 occidentalis) into an excavation in which it was poured, so that it would 

 be lapped and eaten up by the ants. No dog or other animal must 

 be allowed to touch the blood. If all had been carefully followed out 

 cessation of the hemorrhage was supposed to follow. 



The great majority of the many medicines used by the Gosiutes were 

 products of the plant kingdom, though to a limited number of animal 

 substances and preparations curative properties were attributed. As 

 above stated, some of the medicines were of undoubted service, con- 

 taining active principles identical with or closely related in not a few 

 cases to those used or formerly used by our own practitioners. Often 

 several different medicines might be used for the same ailment or what 

 was regarded as the same, the one selected depending upon season, 

 availability or personal preference. In some cases remedies were 

 combined and given in a mixture, in which case each constituent was 

 supposed to exercise its own particular virtue. Medicines were 

 roughly classified according to their use, the classification being in 

 correspondence with their categories of disease. Thus, medicine for 

 wounds and cuts were classified as i'-a-na-tsu; for bruises and swellings 

 as bai'-gwi-na-tsu; for burns, wai'-a-na-tsu; for coughs and colds, 

 o'-ni-na-tsu; for bowel troubles, koi'-na-tsu; for "worms," ivu'-i-na-tsu; 

 for venereal diseases, tim'-bai-na-tsu; for rheumatism, tso'-ni-na-tsu; for 

 the blood, bu'-i-na-tsu; for bladder and kidney troubles, si'-na-tsu, etc. 



In setting fractured bones in the limbs sticks of some convenient 

 wood about an inch in diameter and of appropriate length were used as 



