VEGETABLE PRODUCTS USED BY NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS. 173 
It affects the skin of most people in a very painful manner, and the inflammation 
speedily spreads from one part of the body to another. Some people are so 
affected that their faces could not be recognized, and others (like the writer of 
this paper) are not affected by it; but instances are not uncommon of persons 
who have supposed themselves proof against the poison, but have at last been 
affected. After having been once injured they are ever after very susceptible 
to the poison. Even passing to the leeward of a bush on a windy day, or 
through the smoke of a fire in which it is burning, will “ bring the poison to 
the surface ” again. In some parts of California cattle are there affected by 
what is known as the “ milk sickness.” On breaking a stem of the Rhus a 
milky fluid is exuded which is exceedingly poisonous, and if applied to the 
skin, will produce effects like that of nitrate of silver. A black welt is produced 
which, in a few hours, becomes sore, destroys the cuticle, which sloughs off, and 
upon healing leaves a circular cicatrice. So poisonous is it that it pollutes the 
air where it grows. Children, and even grown-up people, who are gatherings 
berries, or otherwise approaching its vicinity, are often badly poisoned. Their 
faces are frequently swelled until their eyes are shut; the neck, hands, and arms- 
covered with inflamed vesicles, the cuticle highly inflamed and not unfrequently 
constitutional symptoms are observed, resembling those of “ milk sickness.” 
The nostrils of cattle grazing amongst it are often covered with pustules. In¬ 
deed its effects are described as almost approaching the fabulous Upas-tree,, 
which that “ Puck of Commentators,” George Stevens, invented, and Erasmus 
Darwin handed down to posterity in the stately verses of the 1 Botanic Garden.’ 
Though well known for a long period (there is a paper on it in the ‘ Philosophical 
Transactions ’ of last century) it has never yet been thoroughly investigated.* 
The Indians seem rarely to be troubled by it, and the native Californians look 
upon an infusion of Grindelia hirsuta , Hook, and Arn., a composite plant, as a 
cure for its noxious effects. There may be said to be no rattlesnakes west of 
the Cascade Mountains, at least, north of the Columbia river, though they are 
sufficiently abundant to the eastward of that range, as far north as Frazer river, 
where I have known several Indians to be bit by them. Their usual plan is to 
brand the wound, having previously tied a ligature between the heart and 
the bite, or to push the wounded limb among mud immediately on receiving, 
the poison. It is said that by this means the poison is washed off, and that, 
the person often escapes death. The only effectual cure I have found is 
drinking immoderately of spirits, until, indeed, no more can be drunk. I 
know a gentleman who was bit, once by the well-known copperhead snake 
of the Western States (Missouri), and twice by the rattlesnake in Oregon, and 
recovered by this treatment. The country people have innumerable specifics, 
for their bites, but I cannot learn that any of them are reliable. The Indians 
of Central America have several remedies from the vegetable world, and all the 
tribes north to British Columbia are said to possess some herb or other, but I 
have generally found them to adopt the treatment I have given above. In 
California, the leaves of Raucus pusillus, Mich., the yerba de la vibora, or 
11 rattlesnake herb” of the Spaniards, are said to be a cure for the bite.f 
* Vide Dr. Isaac Mendhall, in ‘Cincinnati (U. S.) Lancet and Observer,’ March, 1861; 
Chase in Ibid., May, 1861 : article in *' Chicago Medical Joumal,’ June and July, 1861; Canfield, 
in ‘ Edinburgh Botanical Society’s Transactions,’ 1859 ; and Bigelow, ‘ Medical Botany.’ 
f Pigs have a peculiar antipathy to snakes of every description, and particularly to the-, 
rattlesnake. Instantly on seeing it the pig will rush towards the venomous reptile, place* 
its foot on its head, and most adroitly kill it. A few pigs will soon clear a district of snakes. 
At one time the Dalles of the Columbia was perfectly infested by these disagreeable neigh¬ 
bours. They would even enter the houses and crawl under the beds. Since the introduction- 
of pigs, consequent on the country being more settled up, not one can be seen for miles around. 
The pigs are said not to be affected by the poison. The snakes likewise seem to dread the pigs, 
and this is so well known to the Indian women that they will often beg a piece of the skin to wrap, 
round their ankles, when gathering berries in the bush, in order to protect them from snakes. 
