22 Transactions of the Canadian Institute. [Vol. VII. 



successfully, to reduce dislocations. As to fractures properly speak- 

 ing, no setting of the broken ends of the bone was attempted. The 

 limb was simplv enclosed, with hardly any padding, in several 

 envelopes of birch bark with a few wooden splinters bound around 

 as tight as possible, and then left to heal as best it could. In every 

 instance deformity ensued as a matter of course, and even now more 

 than one crooked leg or stiff arm is a witness to the inefficiency of 

 Dene surgery. 



In no case was amputation resorted to, except when it was self- 

 evident that the limb, foot or finger, was too deeply cut to allow of the 

 edges of the wound becoming reunited. In such cases, the bark of the 

 aspen root (Populus tremuloides) was much esteemed as an astringent. 

 More than once, too, persons supposed to be endowed with magic 

 powers, and who were on that account styled uze hutqai (he whose 

 mouth effects cure), were in times past, asked to suck the blood out 

 of the wound so as to prevent gangrene or any other undesirable result. 

 Such persons were so much the more inclined to render this service, 

 as they well knew that it would not be left unpaid for. And so it 

 was that even on such occasions superstition claimed rights which, as 

 shall be seen in the course of this essay, affected more or less nearly all 

 surgical operations. 



But if the cut did not materially affect the bone, and in other cases 

 as, for instance, that of a serious bite from a vicious dog, the Carriers 

 had, and indeed continue to have, recourse to suture, generally with 

 satisfactory results. In olden times, very often shreds of moose sinews 

 were used as thread, while sharp splinters of bone, commonly of a swan 

 wing, did duty as a needle. 



Ligature against hemorrhage was unknown. Applications of the 

 chewed bark of aspen root took its place. When the wound or 

 sore manifested a tendency towards decomposition, a sort of blister 

 of the inner bark of .the willow (Salix longifolia) and of the 

 outer bark of the bear berry bush* was applied, generally with 

 good results. 



All cases of hernia are treated by bandaging. But sometimes the 



* Not to be confounded with the Kinnikinik plant or Arctostaphyhis uva-ursi. The plant I now 

 refer to is a shrub four or five feet high, whose name seems to be unknown to all the English-speaking 

 people I have met, though the plant is very abundant all through my district. French Canadians in the 

 service of the Hudson's Bay Company call it, it would seem, I'nrbe aux sept icorces, though it is no 

 tree at all. The medical properties of its leaves, bark and root are highly valued by the Indians, The 

 word I call it by is merely a translation of its Carrier name sCES-mai-tcoen, bear-berry-stick, or bush. 



