ROCKY MOUNTAIN MEDICAL ASSOCIATION. 69 
The earliest views the Indian has on the cause of 
death and of internal and obscure diseases are based 
on the idea that evil spirits and personal enemies cause 
them by conjuration and by secret or occult prac- 
tices. When this belief becomes common, it de- 
develops among the race an element of fear of the 
unseen powers of the universe, and gradually intro- 
duces a new class of remedies, and almost a new order 
of physicians, who set themselves up as learned in all 
mysteries and capable of holding communion with the 
powers of earth and air. The medicines of this class 
are always associated with ceremonies and fetish 
practices, generally denominated Shamanism, and 
consist largely in the use of charms, amulets, spells, 
and incantations. 
It would, I imagine, require but a slight degree of 
intelligence and brief experience on the part of even 
primitive physicians to be able to observe and to in- 
fer that a particular class of symptoms would be fol- 
lowed by almost uniform results ; and, further, that 
certain symptoms ^ere grave, and almost always led 
to death, while others were followed by a speedy re- 
covery. It is almost certain that they were close ob- 
servers of the attitude and heat of the body, the dry- 
ness, moisture, and complexion of the skin, rapid, slow, 
or painful breathing, chills, fevers, palpitations, and 
coughs. These and other equally significant and prom- 
inent symptoms would offer data upon which to 
prognosticate results with such a degree of success as 
to seem to ignorant savages to possess the wisdom of 
a prophet. The physician thus naturally became the 
