ROCKY MOUNTAIN MEDICAL ASSOCIATION. 
The Indian, in common with all branches of the human 
race, has faith in panaceas, and this belief with him, in 
the absence of a knowledge of physical laws, renders 
him the ready victim of those who profess to operate 
through the arts of magic and appeal to supernatural 
agencies. 
But while this is true, we may with justice ask, 
what profession, science, or art in any age, country, 
or stage of civilization has ever been free from super- 
stitions and impostors ? And, while condemning follies 
in the Indian, we must, I think, recognize the fact that 
all culture, civilization, and religion in the most en~ 
lightened nations are the result of forced training; or, 
in other words, conditions not natural to man. Reason 
and knowledge are therefore neither stable in quality 
nor uniform in quantity in a nation. The people that 
desires to maintain them at a high standard of excel- 
lence must be on a constant strain. To pause in the 
support of them will be to retrograde. And it is 
quite as important to recognize the fact that errors 
and false principles are also the result of education, 
or a sentiment, and dominate judgment and incite to 
burying it. There are many other charms for removing warts. The 
wearing of a thread of gray woolen yarn around the leg to prevent 
cramps. To prevent nightmare, by the placing of a pair of scissors, 
or some cutting instrument, under the pillow. To cure toothache, 
pick the tooth with a nail taken from a decayed coffin. To cure or 
prevent whooping-cough, the wearing of a leather string around 
a child's throat. The rubbing of a " mad-stone" on the wound for 
the cure of a bite of a mad dog. Bags of sulphur, camphor, assafetida, 
etc., worn to prevent contracting contagious disease. Nailing of a 
horseshoe over the door of houses and stables for good luck. It 
would be an easy matter to greatly extend this list. 
