The Midwest pioneer, his ills, cures, & doctors - University Library ...

46
possession of cures, simples, etc., that surpass what is used
by our best practitioners." To simpHfy matters Smith
reduced all diseases to two types: (1) those of plethora and
irritation; (2) those of debility, weakness, and languor.
The human body discharged as perspiration "half or more
of all that we eat and drink daily. It would surprise you
« to see this floating all over you, in a state of health, like
water over a piece of watered meadow, and a steam flying
from you in every direction, like your breath on a frosty
morning. ... If the air be cool and clear it will always
have elasticity, as it is called; it will swell and fly back
again easily, when we receive it into our lungs." Whenever
anything upset this salubrious state of affairs. Dr. Smith
was prepared with ninety prescriptions to restore it. These
ranged from the Home Ipecacuanha or Indian Physic to
the famous Leotrill, which he claimed to have got from
Flanders. There were the usual purges, tonics, and poultices,
an interesting concoction for cure of derangement
or mania, and the late discovery, or snail cure, for cancer.
Two prescriptions were rather unusual.^ "Preserving
the teeth, and curing an odious taste in the mouth, may
always, I presume, be affected by this little simple process:
Only wash and rinse your mouth every morning in your
own urine. . . . Relief from the ill taste I have proved, and
I do not think the remedy worse than the disease. Those
who know this in their youth, and will not try it, who can
pity them when they have the tooth-ache!" The other, "for
a diarrhaea, or looseness of the belly," was particularly efficacious
and had been given with success to both man and
beast: "Take the yard or pizzle of a buck (get it saved and
dried by a deer hunter) , reduce it to powder, put a spoonful
of the powder in a bottle with a pint of spirits; take
this solution in small quantities, every hour, till relief is
obtained."
Father Smith held the regular doctor in little esteem.
we can do better without calomel than with it,
"Now if
both in debility and plethora; why should we not throw by
the use of it . . . We should always remember, when we