SCHOPF AMERICAN TRAVELS. 



mountains and swamps of this western country would certainly afford 

 a rich harvest, not only of rare plants but of those unknown. Among 

 other things these forests would supply many new contributions to 

 the order of mushrooms, of which uncommonly large specimens are 

 sometimes found. I saw a white Lycoperdon, which weighed two and 

 a quarter pounds and was in diameter a foot and eight inches. 



Fruit is still a rarity, here as well as throughout the mountains. 

 Near to the Fort [Fort Pitt] was an orchard, planted by the English 

 garrison, but since wholly neglected, and this was the only one for per- 

 haps a hundred miles around. In it were several varieties of the best 

 tasting pears and apples. The common reproach that America is 

 unable to produce as good fruit as Europe will certainly not apply to 

 this region. In the woods around there are many wild bees, and on 

 still, warm evenings one notices quite plainly a pleasant smell of honey. 



[I, 436-444.] Of the medical knowledge of the Indians the opinion 

 here and there in America is still very high.* The greater number, 

 but not the well-informed, are convinced that the Indians, myste- 

 riously skilled in many excellent remedies, carefully and jealously 

 conceal them from the white Europeans. As always so here, people 

 are deceived by the fancy that behind a veil of mystery there lie hid- 

 den great and powerful things. I see no reason to expect anything 

 extraordinary or important, and I am almost certain that with the 

 passage of time nothing will be brought to light, if as is the case, out- 

 right specifics are looked for and presumably infallible remedies. I 

 do not therefore deny in any way that we must thank the northern 

 half of America for sundry medicaments of value, and I apprehend 

 as well that every new remedy must be to the patriotic American 

 physician a treasured contribution to his domestic medical store. Most 

 of the diseases for the healing of which the skill of the Indians is espe- 

 cially praised are simple, those in which nature may work actively 

 and effect the most salutary changes. The variety of diseases among 

 the Indians is not great and is confined chiefly to fevers and super- 

 ficial injuries. The observers and panegyrists of the so much belauded 

 Indian methods of therapy are commonly ignorant people who find 

 things and circumstances wonderful because they can not offer expla- 

 nations from general principles. The bodily constitution of an Indian 

 hardened from youth by vehement exercise and by many difficult feats, 

 demands and bears stronger medical excitants ; and endowed origi- 

 nally with more elasticity, the physical system of an Indian often rids 

 itself of a malady more promptly than that of a European, weaker 

 and softer, is able to do. Their weaklings succumb in early youth, 

 and those who survive all the hardships of a careless bringing-up owe 

 it to their better constitution. The medicines of which they make 



*This ungrounded but ancient misconception Dr. Benjamin Rush of Philadelphia some time 

 ago undertook to combat. See his Oration delivered February 4. 1774, be/ore the American Philo- 

 sophiral Society, contaitiing an engui^y into the natural history of Medicine amotig the Indians 

 of N 'rlh Ameri a. A translation of this readable essay is to be found in Samml. anserles. Abhandl. 

 fiir Praktische Aertzte, IV. 267. 



II 



