Aboriginal American Medicine, North of Mexico*

ABORIGINAL AMERICAN MEDICINE, NORTH OF MEXICO* By ROBERT CARLISLE MAJOR, M.D. NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA AD there been, on one of mit a detailed description of the medi- Columbus’ ships, a twen- cine of even a single tribe, considered tieth-century scholar, well de novo. It may be possible, however, to grounded in the anthropol- indicate how the practices of the abo- ogy and the medical history of rigines,the Old north of Mexico, fit into the WorldH but entirely unacquainted with scheme of primitive medicine in gen- the New, he could have, after a brief eral, the outlines of which have been so glance at the people who greeted him, clearly drawn by the late Dr. Fielding predicted with amazing accuracy their Garrison. He has written: concepts of disease and their methods of The common point of convergence of combating it. Nor must any supernatu- all medical folk-lore is animism, i.e. the ral communion with the Thunder Bird notion that the world swarms with invis- have preceded such divination, for the ible spirits which are the efficient causes identity of all forms of primitive medi- of disease and death. Primitive medicine cine, regardless of time or place, is now is inseparable from primitive modes of re- so well established as to be axiomatic. ligious belief. If we are to understand the Whether one accepts the convergence attitude of the primitive mind toward the theory of Bastian which affirms the ap- diagnosis and treatment of disease, we must recognize that medicine, in our sense, pearance of identical ethnic phenomena was only one phase of a set of magic or in different relations of space and time mystic processes designed to promote hu- as due to spontaneous development of man well-being, such as averting the wrath certain elemental ideas common to of angered gods or evil spirits, fire-making, primitive man everywhere, or whether making rain, purifying streams or habi- one accepts the convection or diffusion tations, fertilizing soil, improving sexual theory of Ratzel which holds no pri- potency or fecundity, preventing or re- mary elemental thought or action pos- moving blight of crops and epidemic dis- sible to primitive races but that each eases. These powers, originally united in one person, were he god, hero, king, sor- race has derived something from its cerer, priest, prophet, or physician, neighbors in space or from its prede- formed the savage’s generic concept of cessors in time, or whether one accepts “making medicine.” A true medicine- something of both, there remains the maker, in the primitive sense, was the oft-confirmed finding that in different analogue of our scientific experts, philan- places and at different times, the essen- thropists, and efficiency engineers, a gen- tial traits of primitive medicine have eral promoter of human prosperity.19 been alike in tendency, differing only in He might have added that the pros- unimportant details. perity was sometimes that of the indi- The scope of this paper does not per- vidual to the detriment of the group. * Read before the Osler Club of Saranac Lake, N. Y., March 1, 1938. It is much to be regretted that so few or the like but spinne out the threed of of the early observations, made before their dayes to a faire length, numbering profound alterations had been wrought threescore, four-score, some a hundred in the Indians' mode of life, are of what years, before the world’s universall sum- we are pleased to call scientific charac- moner cite them to the craving Grave. ter. Comment of early and emotionally He later professes never to have seen uninvolved travelers is exceedingly frag- “one that was borne either in redun- mentary. Much of what was written dance or defect a monster, or any that came from one of two groups, those to sickness had deformed, or casuallie whom there could be no good among made decrepit, saving one that had a these heathen and those who, outraged bleared eye and an other that had a by the cruel ravages of the white man’s wenne on his cheek.’’53 greed, his diseases, his firearms, and his Ebe best evidence is, like Wood’s, firewater, would almost lead one to be- negative, having to do with the diseases lieve that a civilization surpassing that the aborigines did not have, but Wood of ancient Greece or Rome was being was an avowed enthusiast and the more destroyed. Then, there is the point, em- conservative opinions of such students phasized by Yager,55 that the Indian en- as Colonel Ashburn and Dr. Hrdlicka joyed a little fun at the white man’s should probably be given more weight. expense by wilfully giving him fantastic Ashburn1 is convinced that: explanations for puzzling behavior. Prior to the coming of the white man And throughout all this history runs and the negro, America was a land almost the difficulty of language, poorly under- free from infectious diseases. Death on the stood on both sides and fruitful of mis- wholesale scale came only from war, understanding. drought, Hood and famine, and on the It seems desirable, at this point, to small scale mainly from accidents and in- consider existing knowledge of Indian juries, the mishaps and complications of morbidity and of the ills to which he childbearing, the sacrifice of captives and was subject. As might be anticipated, old age. most accounts fail to distinguish sharply It is of interest that he credits malaria between the pre-Columbian and the to the invaders, as well as yellow fever post-Columbian, with resulting confus- and dengue, Africa being the chief ion. source. Smallpox, typhus, scarlet fever, William Wood, one of our very first diphtheria, measles, whooping cough, promoters, came to New England in cholera, typhoid, tuberculosis, and gon- 1629 aRd in 1633 returned home and orrhea likewise seem to have come with wrote a book to induce Englishmen to the agents of civilization and found vir- settle in the new country. Of the health gin soil, with the usual disastrous effects of the natives, he says: under such conditions. Coupled with such negative evidence The Indians be of lusty and healthfull bodies, not experimentally knowing the is the overwhelming indication that the Catalogue of those health-wasting diseases whites met no diseases considered, by which are incident to other countries, as them, new. Whether or not syphilis is Feavers, Pleurisies, Callentures, Agues, a gift from the Indian, taken back to the Obstructions, Consumptions, Subfumiga- Old World by Columbus, is an old con- tions, Convulsions, Apoplexies, Dropsies, troversy, too involved to be entered Gouts, Stones, Toothaches, Pox, Measels here. At least, the later settlers and ex- plorers were well acquainted with the ease, asthma, disease of the heart or pox and no evidence has been found in arteries, varicose veins or hemorrhoids, this study of pre-Columbian syphilis. glandular affections of the breast, pro- It is agreed that there was little, ex- static enlargement, hernia, disease what- tremely little, if any, cancer among the ever of the sexual organs, appendicitis, pure Indians. peritonitis, or ulcer of the stomach. He What was apparently arthritis, gener- observed little skin disease, rare insan- ally described as rheumatism and neu- ity, no leprosy, and no pathological ralgia, was common. The remedies used obesity. with considerable effect, as will be Dr. Benjamin Rush37 commented on brought out later, suggest rheumatoid reports of many examples of extreme or infectious arthritis, but the studies of old age in both sexes and adds, “It is re- paleopathologists reveal hypertrophic markable that age seldom impairs the or osteoarthritis as well. faculties of their minds.” Analysis of Gastrointestinal disturbances of a not many skeletons, however, has led to too serious nature, commonly attrib- modification of the belief in Indian uted to alternating periods of starva- longevity and, of course, infant mortal- tion and gluttony, were likewise com- ity was high. mon. Stone45 reviewed the subject and be- There was much conjunctivitis, said lieves that obesity, arteriosclerosis, heart to be due to irritation from smoke-filled disease, endocrine disorders, and insan- dwellings and, in the Southwest, from ity were recognized sporadically but sandstorms. considered curiosities and that rickets Mechanical traumata and burns are occurred fairly commonly. His evidence not peculiar to an industrial age. of rickets is not set forth. On the con- Among the Indians of Ohio and trary, skeletal remains indicate absence Pennsylvania, Heckewelder21 remarked of rickets but presence of so-called sym- the absence of gout, gravel and scrofula. metrical osteoporosis. Among the New England tribes, Roger The Iroquois at Quebec in 1535-36 Williams50 could hear of no calculus, are said to have cured the scurvy of Car- which he attributed to the “corne of the tier’s crew with an infusion of bark and country.” Alexander Henry,13 adopted limbs of the hemlock spruce, implying among the Ojibway in 1763 and fa- familiarity with the disease. This ac- miliar also with the Ottawa, saw “never count is somewhat apocryphal and data a case of dropsy, gout, or stone.” Mc- on deficiency states are few. Most ob- Laughlin,28 long in charge of the Stand- servers who comment at all describe in- ing Rock agency, says the Sioux, in the sanity as rare and very humanely old days, “never had a cold.” However, treated. It is true that captives some- colds, bronchial affections, inflamma- times feigned insanity to escape torture tion of the lungs, and pleurisy are fre- or death. However, these comments sug- quently mentioned, their exact relation gest that (1) the point was missed that to contact with the whites being unde- the frankly insane were treated with termined.

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