June 25, 1897.] 



SCIENCE. 



979 



other kind of lancets, he deepened both in- 

 cisions, avoiding with the utmost skill the 

 crooked vein that descended over this por- 

 tion of the foot, and also the tendon lying 

 over the tarsal and metatarsal bones. The 

 wound was then squeezed strongly by the 

 assistant, while, with water poured over it 

 and with wads of the cedar bark used as 

 sponges, he washed away the pus and serum 

 that gushed forth, and then with the scraped 

 buckskin stanched the flow of blood. 



Having at the outset tenderly admonished 

 their patient, these men seemed thereafter 

 to be oblivious of his agony, to hold in view 

 only his ultimate betterment. And the 

 patient himself seemed almost as oblivious 

 of them, although from suffering his face 

 was drawn and ashen in color, and great 

 drops of perspiration stood on his forehead 

 while his breath came in short quick gasps. 

 Yet he no more changed his grimly set but 

 acquiescent expression than would one of 

 the totem-animals of his ancestry, whose 

 stoicism — as under all circumstances his 

 kind ever do — he sought to emulate. The 

 old surgeons took up one after another of 

 the straight lancets, and with them dis- 

 sected away the proud flesh and other dis- 

 eased tissue, removing it cleanly, without 

 severing vein or artery or tendon, until 

 they had fairly exposed the bone itself. 

 Here they found a swollen and diseased bit 

 of nerve or tendon. They ruthlessly cut it 

 out and examined it critically ; stuffing 

 some cedar-bark into the wound, they laid 

 their lancets down and discussed thorough- 

 Ij', and in an interested, leisurelj' manner, 

 the question as to whether it was already a 

 worm or onl}' a ' becoming ' worm. After 

 deciding that whether worm or ' becoming- 

 worm ' it was not the chief or sole source 

 of the disease, they laid it carefulh^ aside 

 on some ashes in a hollow potsherd. 

 Then removing the bark and calling 

 upon me to squeeze water into the wound 

 they proceeded until the bone was plainly 



exposed. They found the periosteum in- 

 flamed and discolored, and, therefore, 

 with evident satisfaction, they proceeded 

 to scrape it until every particle of the 

 discoloration was removed. It was 

 claimed that in the substance of the ma- 

 terial thus scraped away the deepest source 

 of the disease and ' seat worms ' was found. 

 This was also placed on the ashes with the 

 fragment of nerve or tendon. Then one of 

 them took a small fetish, or medicine-stone, 

 from his wallet. It was an ovoid object of 

 banded aragonite, much resembling a ringed 

 worm or maggot. He laid it in the wound. 

 He presently took it out, lifted it aloft with 

 an air of triumph, and carefully placed it on 

 the ashes with the ligament and bone- 

 scrapings. The incision was now held open 

 and thoroughly washed out, and then the 

 chief operator, dipping up gourdfuls of the 

 red liquid, filled his mouth therewith, and 

 repeatedly sprayed the wound by vigorous- 

 ly blowing the fluid into it. All dissected 

 surfaces were then washed, dried with the 

 scraped buckskin, washed and dried again, 

 until it not only became, but actually 

 looked, clean, and was sprayed j'et again 

 with the red fluid. Finally, the openings 

 were filled up, or rather stuffed, with the 

 pifion-gum softened by warmth of the 

 breath and in the hands, that were the 

 while kept constantly wet with the red 

 fluid. More of this gum was spread on 

 narrow strips of cloth, and with these the 

 wound was neatly closed as with adhesive 

 plaster. The entire foot was sprinkled or 

 thickly dusted over with the j^ellow pol- 

 len and root-powder, and then bandaged 

 with long strips of the old rags as neatly as 

 it would have been bandaged by a surgeon 

 among ourselves. 



The procedure of these primitive sur- 

 geons, if we consider the antiseptic treat- 

 ment involved in their copious spraj'ings 

 with the willow-bark infusion, in the fill- 

 ing of the wound with purifjang piiion 



