ZINA PITCHER 147 



imaginable. He was all alone, one hundred miles 

 from anywhere, with an appalling amount of 

 work on hand, and no wonder he broke down. 

 When I reached Saginaw he was being carried 

 all over the garrison on a mattress, by men not 

 well enough as yet to move about or lift anything, 

 giving opinions and advice ; and a dreadful sight 

 he presented, I assure you." 



But Pitcher managed to find time, not only to 

 study medicine, but to study the flora around. 

 He made friends with the Indians, wrote con- 

 cerning their diseases and therapy, and embodied 

 much of the knowledge so acquired in his mono- 

 graph on Indian Medicine, which appeared in 

 Schoolcraft's fourth volume on The Conditions 

 and Prospects of the Indian Tribes, 1854, a work 

 preceded and followed by two Reports on the 

 Epidemics of Ohio, Indiana and Michigan, 

 George Mendenhall helping with the first two. 



In 1828, the Michigan Historical Society was 

 founded by General Cass, Schoolcraft and 

 Pitcher. Here explorations, Indian lore and nat- 

 ural history formed the subjects for discussion, 

 and Pitcher secured the sum of $970 to pur- 

 chase Audubon's splendid work on ornithology. 

 It is easy to imagine the members gathering 

 around to see the book, and the mutual congratu- 

 lations upon its acquisition. 



