166 DISEASES. 



were placed hot stones wrapped up in leaves, from which the warmth 

 ascended to the injured limb which was left uncovered and exposed 

 to the flies and other insects. The poor woman was moaning- 

 terribly; and her cries of "Agai" were painful to listen to, especially 

 as I was permitted to do but little. They would neither wash nor 

 cover the wound, and persisted in keeping up the hot air treatment 

 by means of the hot stones wrapped in leaves, which were placed 

 under the couch. I pronounced her recovery as hopeless ; and was 

 after a time obliged to discontinue my visits, upon being told by 

 one of the medicine-men that as he could make her well, my 

 presence was not required. I never saw the woman again, but 

 sometime after I learned that she was nearly well. 



The man who was wounded at the same time had received a rifle- 

 bullet through the thigh without injuring the bone, and another 

 throucfh the groin. I found his wounds in the same horrible condi- 

 tion, with the wound of exit in the thigh as large as my fist. 

 Nothing whatever had been done excej)t placing hot stones in 

 leaves under the limb on the ground beneath ; and nothing more 

 was done. There the man lay for several weeks with his wounds 

 unwashed and exposed to the air. In course of time he recovered. 

 One of the Treasury natives had been shot b}^ one of his own partyr 

 the rifle-bullet passing through the right elbow from behind, and 

 apparently disorganising the joint. I saw him a month after he 

 had received the injury, lying in a very emaciated condition on his 

 couch, with the wounded limb stretched out beside him quite un- 

 protected and displaying an extensive flesh-wound in front of the 

 joint. The hot-stone treatment had been the only one employed. 

 In another month or five weeks he was up and about, but of course 

 with a useless elbow. One of the Alu natives, who had been shot 

 through the left shoulder from behind by the Treasury chief, had 

 nearly recovered when I saw liim six or seven weeks after, although 

 the aim was useless. 



Reflecting on the hot-stone treatment which the natives em- 

 ployed for these severe injuries, I came to think that it was really 

 efficacious. They said themselves that the hot air eased the pain, 

 and this was probably effected, as I hold, b}" the warmth relaxing 

 the parts after suppuration had begun and thus assisting the escape 

 of the purulent discharges. The surgeon of our own time may take 

 a hint from this practice. of the Solomon Islander. It would cer- 

 tainly scarcely accord with the principles of uiodern surgery if a 



