790 BUREAU OP AMEIRICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 137 



the venom, which is green, and are never damaged thereby. The small pox and 

 rum, have made such a destruction amongst them that, on good grounds, I do 

 believe, there is not the sixth savage living within two hundred miles of all 

 our settlements, as there were fifty years ago. (Lawson, 1860, pp. 347-363.)** 



Elsewhere he has something to say about the use of certain vege- 

 table products as medicine. Bark taken from the root of the elm 

 (apparently the common elm) was beaten, whilst green, to a pulp, 

 and then dried in the chimney where it turned of a reddish color. 



This [he says] they use as a sovereign remedy to heal a cut or green wound, 

 or any thing that is not corrupted. Pelletory grows on the sand banks and 

 islands. It is used to cure the toothache by putting a piece of bark in the 

 mouth, which being very hot draws a rhume from the mouth, and causes much 

 spittle. The Indians use it to make their composition, which they give to their 

 young men and boys when they are husquenawed. (Lawson, 1860, p. 167.)" 



The following note by the same writer may be added though it may 

 be said to involve a cure of mediocrity rather than disease : 



Enquiring of them if they never got any of the Bezoar stone, and giving them 

 a description how it was found, the Indians told me, they had great plenty of it, 

 and asked me, what use I could make of it? I answered them, that the white 

 men used it in physic, and that I would buy some of them, if they would get it 

 against I came that way again. Thereupon, one of them pulled out a leather- 

 pouch, wherein was some of it in powder ; he was a notable hunter, and affirmed 

 to me, that that powder blown into the eyes, strengthened the sight and brain 

 exceedingly, that being the most common use they made of it. (Lawson, 1860, 

 p. 85.) 



The naturalist Catesby was, as might have been anticipated, less 

 impressed by the esoteric elements in Indian medical practices, and 

 in general his treatment of the subject is valuable on account of his 

 training and background. His remarks are of general application 

 though he seems to have been best acquainted with the tribes visited 

 by Lawson and with the Chickasaw. 



The Indians have healthful constitutions, and are little acquainted with those 

 diseases which are incident to Europeans, as gout, dropsies, stone, asthma, phthisic, 

 calentures, paralytic, apoplexies, small-pox, measles, dc. Although some of them 

 arrive to a great age, yet in general they are not a long liv'd people, which in 

 some measure may be imputed to their great negligence of their health by drunk- 

 enness, heats and colds, irregular diet and lodging, and infinite other disorders 

 and hardships (that would kill an European) which they daily use. To this 

 happy constitution of body is owing their great use of physic, and their super- 

 ficial knowledge therein, as proportionable. No malady is taken in hand without 

 an exorcism to effect the cure; by such necromantic delusions, especially if the 

 patient recovers, these crafty doctors, or conjurers (which are both in one) raise 

 their own credit; insinuating the influence they have with the good spirit to 

 expunge the evil one out of the body of the patient, which was the only cause of 

 their sickness. There are three remedies that are much used by all the Indians 

 of the northern continent of America: these are bagnio's or sweating houses, 

 scarrification, and the use of Oasena or Yapon. The first is used in intermiting 



^oThe casseena Is discussed again on pp. 153-1.54 of Lawson's work, also the sassafras. 

 *iHe describes the actions gone tbrough by a Tuscarora medicine man (p. 104). 



