STEVENSON] MEDICAL PRACTICE 385 



theurgists, who have great influence, the patient and the family show- 

 ing every confidence in their doctor, who selects some one against whom 

 he harbors animosity as the destroyer of the health of his patient. 

 The patient also, or a member of the family, may accuse some man or 

 woman as the witch who "shot" the medicine into him. The practices 

 of the theurgists are fully described in the section relating to witch- 

 craft and esoteric fraternities. 



There can be no doubt of the use of antiseptics among these primitive 

 people antedating the modern practice of surger}-. What the scien- 

 titic man learns through investigation and experiment, aboriginal man 

 discovers by accident and chance experience. The Indian's treat- 

 ment is blindlv empiric. He does not understand why his medicine 

 cures; he simply knows that it does cure, and he attributes the cause 

 to some divine power. He applies the antiseptic without bathing his 

 hands or the parts affected, and the wound is usuallv covered with a 

 soiled cloth. He does a part, however, and nature completes the work. 



Bacteriology teaches that disease is to a large extent the result of 

 microbes; the Zuni theurgists declare disease generally to be caused 

 by foreign life ''shof" into the bod}^ by witches. Roentgen learned 

 to illuminate the bones and viscera with X ra3's; the Zuiii theurgist 

 holds a cr3'stal in the light immediate h" before his patient that he ma}' 

 see into the flesh and locate the disease. It can not be said whether 

 the Zufii women ever had a struggle to enter the field of medicine, but 

 to-day some of the most successful practitioners, both in legitimate 

 medicine and in theurgy, are women, though they are much fewer 

 than the men. Some of the male theurgists are successful in certain 

 kinds of surger}', especialh^ in the treatment of fractures and disloca- 

 tions. 



In 1879 the writer discovered that the Zuiiis cmploNcd a narcotic, 

 but she failed to secure specimens of the drug until 1902, which was 

 then found to be Datura stramonium, jimson weed. The mention of 

 the original discover}- caused remark at the time, some ethnologists 

 declaring that though the North American Indians had intoxicants, 

 they were entirely ignorant of narcotics. Mr James ]\Iooncy, of the 

 Bureau of American Ethnology, who observed the use of the peyotc 

 plant with ceremonial forms among the Kiowas and other tribes of 

 the southern plains southward into Mexico, was the flrst to bring, in 

 1891, the plant and ceremony to scientific attention. He supplied the 

 late Dr D. W. Prentiss with a quantity of this plant, and after many 

 careful experiments with it Doctor Prentiss administered it to his 

 patients as an anesthetic with most favorable results. The Zufiis do 

 not know the peyote, but they use the jimson weed, which they 

 call a'neglakya, both as a narcotic and externally for wounds and 

 bruises. The blossoms and root ground to a powder are applied 

 externally. This plant is of still further value to the Zunis, for when 



23 KTii— 04 2o 



