Wellington Philosoi^hical Society. 437 



Working on a wrong hypothesis, they arrived at a right method of treatment for 

 certain diseases. This treatment was change of climate ; but they changed their residence 

 not because of the air, but, finding beneficial results, they believed these were due to the 

 fact that when they moved they left their " afwa" behind. 



Of course the uncivilized Maori medicine men knew nothing of such means of 

 restraint as straight-jackets or padded-rooms for maniacal or strongly-convulsed patients. 

 However, they very ingeniously adopted another line of treatment. If a patient ate 

 haraka berries, he was sure to be violently convulsed ; so they dug a hole, lashed his 

 arms to his side, tied his arms, put him up to his chin in the hole, filled up with earth — 

 then let him have his fits. — (Colenso.) He sometimes got well. 



Ahacesses were opened long before they were ripe by means of thorns or shells, and 

 were then violently squeezed, causing great pain. They also used hot poultices of leaves. 



To stop bleeding, they used the old housewifes' common remedy — cobwebs. 



In cases of suspended animation from drowning, they held a man upside down to let 

 the water run out, and then hung him (heels still up) over a smoking fire. There are no 

 trustworthy statistics showing the results of this plan. 



If they wished to excite vomiting, they held the patient under water till his stomach 

 was full, and then rolled him on the ground and squeezed him. 



Certain tribes believed they could squeeze out diseases, and the tohungas used to lay 

 their patients on the ground, and pile on weights. This plan sometimes produced ill 

 results when carried very far, because the patient's life was squeezed out. Very learned 

 London surgeons recently tried to cure cancer in the same foolish fashion. 



From the habit of cannibalism arose one good, it taught them something roughly of 

 human anatomy, and they could sometimes reduce a dislocation (Colenso), and use 

 splinters for broken bones. Occasionally they amputated fingers and joints, but this was 

 the limit of their achievements in surgery. 



They used a few j^lants medicinally, e.g., the shoots of the koromiko. 



The tohungas practised much on the credulity of their patients, and are said to have 

 used ventriloquism as an aid. They got certain offerings (fees), and, when they did not 

 in the least know what was the matter, could look as solemn and as wise as a leading 

 London physician. 



They suffered indigestion, the result of ill-cooked semi-putrid eels, half-rotten maize, 

 and other like food. 



They much frequented the hot-springs ; one near Tolaga Bay is much celebrated in 

 skin diseases, and at times the natives make pilgrimages there, especially when afflicted 

 with venereal affections. 



The Maoris have acquired all our contagious diseases, and doubtless in time will 

 acquhe those whi(!h are the direct products of civihzation. Scarlet fever, measles, small- 

 pox, and typhoid fever, have all at times done much mischief. Syphilis and other vene- 

 real affections have been introduced. SyphiUs does not seem to commit great ravages ; 

 but gonorrhcea and all its attendant evils are very rife, and are much aggravated by dirt 

 and neglect. They seldom apply for treatment to European doctors. Perhaps the fre- 

 quency of discharges in the women may account for part of the large amoimt of infertihty, 

 and be one among the many facts leading to extinguish the race. 



From a medical point of view there is httle to interest the physician who studies his 

 fellow- colonists. With the rare exception of a person bitten by the katipo, who as a rule 

 does not die though he suffers a good deal, and the occasional illness and still rarer death 

 of some child, from eating poisonous berries, there is not one single disease which colonists 

 acquire from the Maoris; not one single disease arising from change in the soil, or climate, 



