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



limb by means of stout bandages. But as the patient is generally a 

 child, and as youth has pretty much its own way among the natives, 

 it commonly happens that said patient soon grows tired of the 

 restraint imposed by the apparatus and easily persuades his parents 

 to throw it away before half the time necessary for a cure has elapsed. 

 Thus it is that hunch-backs, mostly females, are not unknown among 

 the Denes. 



Speaking of females reminds me of a circumstance in connection 

 wherewith Dene surgery is, as a rule, more successful. I mean that 

 dangerous complaint known to medical men as prolapsus uteri. As 

 most of the drudgery of the daily life, especially when on the wing, 

 still falls to the lot of the woman, accidents, oftentimes quite serious, 

 follow as a matter of course. Heavy packing, stumbling, falling, or 

 the straining of the lower extremities frequently enough occasion the 

 displacement, more or less pronounced, of the womb. In such cases, 

 the treatment observed is quite rational, and therefore, it is ordinarily 

 crowned with success. The patient is immediately laid in a recumbent 

 position with the head rather lower than the womb, and quite commonly, 

 by dint of external manipulation, the injured organ is pressed up to 

 its normal place, after which strong bandages covering a plaster-like 

 padding, added to copious draughts of the decoction of the stems of the 

 raspberry bush, help to neutralize the effects of the accident. But I 

 am bound to confess that, in the more severe cases, sterility ensues 

 even in otherwise healthy women. Some persons of this Mission are 

 quite noted for their skill in connection with all complaints of this and 

 a cognate nature. 



Considering the inconstancy of the native temperament, it speaks 

 well for their comprehension of the gravity of such complaints that, 

 in extreme cases, they should keep the patient as long as a full month 

 reclining with the head in a lower plane than the rest of the body 

 after the womb has been duly replaced. I know of one such case 

 which was so serious that the organ had escaped from the body and 

 was protruding almost in its entirety. It happened in a remote village 

 long before I was here, and its treatment may therefore be considered 

 as an instance of unassisted native surgery. It was consequent on a 

 painful delivery, and the mother was so skilfully operated on that 

 she lived to see several grandchildren by the daughter who was the 

 involuntary cause of the whole trouble. 



On such occasions, our Carrier women wrap their hand, preparatory 

 to internal manipulation, with a kerchief or some soft material 



