980 



SGIENGE. 



[N. S. Vol. V. No. 130. 



gum and tlie remarkably effective closure 

 of the incisions thereby, and in the sur- 

 face-coating witb the astringent yellow 

 powder, would certainly seem to have 

 been, almost from beginning to end, as 

 strictly rational also as would have been 

 those of one of our own surgeons. But in 

 reality they were nothing of the sort. If 

 we except the exceeding ingenuity and 

 courage and the anatomic knowledge and 

 skill displayed by these surgeons in their 

 operations, the theories upon which they 

 based their procedure were, from our point 

 of view, irrational in the highest de- 

 gree. They were a combination of em- 

 piric and thaumaturgic modes, chiefly the 

 latter. 



These men believed, according to the 

 general philosophy of their people, founded 

 on the superficial appearance of things, 

 that blood — good, fresh, red blood — was the 

 source of ' new flesh.' They believed that 

 when the blood became thinned and black 

 it was weakened and spoiled and must 

 therefore be removed and replaced with 

 fresh blood ; that as blood is the source of 

 new flesh, so is water the first source of 

 new blood, of life itself, since nothing can 

 live without water, howsoever abundant 

 sustenance of other sort may be. There- 

 fore, since the willow never lives apart from 

 springs or other continuous sources of wa- 

 ter, it must contain within its roots, its 

 sources, the very essence, the very source 

 of life. An infusion of its roots and bark 

 becomes brightly red. It is imagined, there- 

 fore, to be the source of new life-blood, of 

 flesh-forming blood itself, and to be eflfec- 

 tive for the renewal of decaying or ' worm- 

 turning ' flesh. The emploj'ment of the 

 ' fire-feeding ' and, therefore, ' purifying 

 and maturing ' piiion gum, and of the cool- 

 ing and hardening yellow (or ' winter ' root) 

 powder and sustaining pollen, also quite, 

 accorded to like ways of reasoning, was as 

 strictly sustained by practical results, and 



therefore seemed, in turn, to prove the pro- 

 priety of such reasoning. 



They also believed that the violence of 

 the man's injury had so weakened the part 

 injured that it was infested with worms or 

 else was killed and turning to worms. This 

 belief was also based on appearances. Dead 

 flesh putrifies, is filled with pus, or with 

 thin, fluid, black or dead blood, Stinks, 

 and is always likely to be, with these 

 people infested with worms (maggots). 

 A festering sore arising from violence, real 

 or imaginary, done to the part in which it 

 occurs exhibits all these characteristics, 

 and, if unchecked, leads to death. Such a 

 sore, if malignant and deep, causes pain as 

 of the bones. Its seed, then, must be deep- 

 seated or in the bones themselves ; this 

 seed must be removed, else it will grow and 

 cause death. Any pain like that arising 

 from such a sore, though no sore be ap- 

 parent, must be caused also by unseen 

 worms or some worm born of violent 

 injury, as by a magical or ghostly ar- 

 row. 



There remain to be explained two or three 

 of the manifestly irrational operations in- 

 volved in the procedure. One was the 

 treatment of the pain -causing worm-fila- 

 ment — or diseased nerve — and the ultimate 

 ' source of worm-turning ' in the bone they 

 scraped ; the other was the use of the mag- 

 got-fetish or medicine-stone. The sup- 

 posedly incipient maggot and the infectious 

 seed-substance of his kind in the bone 

 were placed on the ashes, because fire-ashes 

 are considered, in themselves, to be dissolv- 

 ing and destructive, and (among other 

 quaint reasons) tend toward ' clogging ' or 

 ' hindering escape ; ' for no worm or in- 

 sect can progress through, or escape from, 

 fine ashes. With the scraping of the bone 

 everything had been done that was humanly 

 possible to remove the infection ; but some- 

 thing more must be done, some potency 

 applied, to absorb any remaining infection. 



