at 



journal of Pharmacology, 



Devoted to the Advances made in Materia Medica in its Branches. 



Pharmacy, Pharmacognosgy, Chemistry, Botany, Pharmacol 



Dynamics, Therapeutics and Toxicology. 



Published by the Alumni Association of the College of Pharmacy of the City of New York 



Vol. V. 



NEW YORK, JANUARY, iJ 



No. I. 



SOME HEDICINES OF THE CREE INDIANS OF THE NORTH.* 



By C. Flexon, Winnepeg, Man. 



LIBRARY 

 NEW YORK 

 BOTA f 



GARDEN. 



At a late hour during the close of last 

 week a most interesting gentleman, a 

 stranger to me, hearing that I had been 

 appointed a delegate at this meeting, 

 called to see if a brief record of his ex- 

 perience among the Swampee Indians of 

 the North, with whom he had lived for 

 six years, would be acceptable to me. I 

 thanked Mr. Strath — for such is his 

 name — and he thereupon furnished the 

 following particulars of some of the 

 drugs prescribed by him in his capacity 

 of medical officer at Norway House, 

 about 400 miles due north of Winnepeg. 

 The conversation which I had with him 

 was unfortunately but too short, as it 

 was extremely fascinating. He has evi- 

 dently been a close observer of those 

 people. Apart from speaking their lan- 

 guage fluently, I should say a pretty 

 accurate knowledge had been gained by 

 him of the strength and weakness of the 

 Cree mind. As a student of Greek and 



Hebrew, he has a remarkably high opin- 

 ion of the Cree language. For beauty 

 and perfection, he says, it cannot be 

 surpassed, and to hear him talk of the 

 poetry and eloquence of some • of the 

 native sermons which he has heard, has 

 somewhat destroyed my confidence in the 

 language in which we are conversing on 

 this occasion, and which we are con- 

 ceited enough to suppose is the best in 

 the world. 



DISEASES COMMON TO INDIANS. 



A large number of the diseases com- 

 mon among the white people are just as 

 common among the Indians, and while 

 many of the drugs used by them are well 

 known to us, the manner of using them 

 is certainly different. In the treatment 

 of worms, for instance, male shield fern, 

 — the Aspidium of the United States 

 Pharmacopoeia ; Filix Mas, of the Ph. 



* Presented to the scientific section of the American 

 Pharmaceutical Association. 



