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Peek Inside...Entries For May 24:
1806:
Captain Clark (current)
Captain Clark:
May 24, 1806
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The child was very restless last night. Its jaw and back of its neck is much more swollen than it was yesterday. I gave it a dose of cream of tartar and a fresh poultice of onions. Ordered Shields, Gibson, Drouilliard, Cruzat, Collins, and Joe and Reuben Fields to turn out hunting and if possible cross Collins Creek and hunt toward the quamash fields. W. Bratton is yet very low. He eats heartily, but he is so weak in the small of his back that he can't walk. We have made use of every remedy to restore him without its having the desired effect.
One of our party, John Shields, observed that he had seen men in similar situations restored by violent sweats, and Bratton requested that he might be sweated in the way Shields proposed, which we agreed to.
Shields dug a round hole 4 feet deep and 3 feet in diameter, in which he made a large fire so as to heat the hole, after which the fire was taken out, a seat placed in the hole. The patient was then set on the seat with a board under his feet and a can of water handed him to throw on the bottom and the sides of the hole, so as to create as great a heat as he could bear, and the hole covered with blankets supported by hoops. After about twenty minutes, the patient was taken out and put in cold water a few minutes and returned to the hole, in which he was kept about an hour, then taken out and covered with several blankets, which were taken off by degrees until he became cool. This remedy took place yesterday and Bratton is walking about today, and is much better than he has been.
At 11 A.M. a canoe came down with the Indian man who had applied for medical assistance while we lay at The Broken Arm's village. This man I had given a few doses of flowers of sulphur and cream of tartar and directed that he should take the cold bath every morning. He conceded himself a little better than he was at that time. He had lost the use of all his limbs, and his fingers are contracted. We are at a loss to determine what to do for this unfortunate man. I gave him a few drops of laudanum and some portable soup as medicine.
Reprinted by permission of the American Studies Programs at the University of Virginia.
The complete text can also be downloaded for printing from their website.
