James's Account of S. H. Long's Expedition, 1819-1820, part 2

by Edwin James; Stephen H. Long; Thomas Say

Nymphomania occurred in the person of a widow, who was thus afflicted about two months; her symptoms were attended with an effusion of blood from the nose. On her recovery, she attributed the disorder to the operation of some potent mystic medicine.

Hypochondriasis seems to be unknown. Canine madness also appears to be without an example, their dogs not having yet been visited by the disease. [239] They are rarely afflicted with dysentery, though children are sometimes subject to it in consequence of eating unripe fruits, such as plums, grapes, and maize. They are never known to be subject to the coup de soleil,[9] although they travel for days and even weeks over the unsheltered prairies, without any covering whatever for the head, which is consequently exposed to the full radiance of the sun, both in a state of activity and quiescence. White men residing with them, and who have partaken in their hunts, and consequent insolation, have been visited with this distressing affection, although their heads were protected invariably by hats or handkerchiefs.

The cuticle of these Indians is not known to have been acted upon by contact with poisonous plants, though white men travelling with them have experienced the effects of the usual deleterious properties of the poison vine (rhus radicans,) which is, to a certainty, abundant in proper situations in the Missouri country. What effects would result from the application of this plant to the only part of the body of the Indian which is never exposed to the direct influence of external causes, is a subject deserving of experimental inquiry.

The hare-lip sometimes occurs, but it may be properly considered as still more rare than amongst white people.

Frosted limbs are treated by immersion in cold water, so as gradually to restore the lost temperature of the part. The magi also perform over them their mystic rites, amongst which the only topical application is made by chewing some roots and blowing the fragments, and accompanying saliva violently upon the part, with many antic capers.

Goiture and wens are not known. Fevers, and fever and ague, are exceedingly rare. Ophthalmic diseases, and casualties affecting the eye, are frequent. The eyes of children are sometimes injured or destroyed by missiles, in incautious play or juvenile {240} rencontres. But blindness is more frequently the effect of the gradual operation of disease. The eyes become sore and the lids inflamed; white opake maculæ, after some time, appear in the eye, which enlarge until they cover it entirely, and prevent the ingress of light. It is probable that they possessed no rational remedy for this evil previously to their acquaintance with the traders, excepting the extracting of blood from the temple by their process of cupping; the traders, however, have taught them to remove the opacity, by blowing burnt alum into the eye through a quill, a remedy so familiar in the veterinary art. To this disease children as well as adults are obnoxious.

Another ophthalmia, which also results in the destruction of the faculty of vision, commences with a superabundant secretion of the fluid of the lachrymal duct, succeeded by inflammation of the lids; the sight becomes gradually debilitated, until at length the pupil assumes an opake white appearance; probably fistula lachrymalis.

Temporary blindness, which sometimes eventuates in permanent loss of sight, occurs during the winter to incautious travellers who pass over the prairies covered with snow, from which the solar light is so brilliantly reflected. A party that accompanied Mr. Dougherty on a journey, being thus exposed, became unable to distinguish objects, and had not his sight been preserved, they might never have regained their stockade.

The blind are not neglected by their family and friends; on the contrary, we had several opportunities of observing them to be well clothed and fed, and much at their ease. When superannuated, however, they are not exempted from the fate attendant on that state.

An affection, or pain in the breast, distinguished by the name of Mong-ga-ne-a, seems to be the consequence of excessive indulgence in tobacco, and the {241} habitual inhaling of the smoke of it into the lungs. In their attempts to alleviate this complaint, the magi affect to extract from the part, by suction, balls and pellets of hair, and other extraneous substances, which they had previously concealed in their mouths for the purpose of deceiving the patient.