SECTION XXII.
O f the Difeafes to which the Laplanders are fuhjeSl, and the Remedies
they ufe— O f their Funerals.
r T~1H E fmall-pox has at times proved very fatal in Lapland, but
- has not made its appearance there for many years. In general
the Laplanders enjoy the belt poffible flate of health, and
excepting the head-ach, and a few flight diforders, may be faid to
be free from difeafes. Inward complaints they pretend to cure by
fwallowing the blood of the feal and rein-deer as warm as pofiible.
T h e tooth-ach they likewife relieve by drinking the feal’s blood:
this is but a late remedy, for formerly they knew no other application
than a fplinter from a tree ftruck with lightning, with
which the difeafed tooth was to be touched. I t is remarkable
th a t the teeth of the Laplanders are often corroded by worms,
and that in a manner unknown to the inhabitants of other climates.
Their m ethod o f cure for a difeafe of the eyes, called the pin and
web, which is an imperfeCt ftage of a cataraCt, is lingular and curious,
and hence is recommended by the miffionary to the Daniffi
faculty of phyficians: it is effected by the introduction of the pe-
diculus humanus (common loufe) within the eyelids, which, by
its irritation upon the ball o f the eye, they believe fufficient to
rub off the membrane, and remove the caufe of the complaint.
Chilblains may be fuppofed no unfrequent diforder with the
younger part of the Laplanders; and this, as well as fpafms and
contractions of the limbs, from the feverity of the cold, is relieved
by an ointment which they extraCl from the cheefe made of reindeer’s
milk. They heal and foften flefh wounds with the unprepared
gum which exudes from the fir-tree. Before they reduce a
diflocated or fraCtured bone, which they do with bandages (amputation
of limbs being a pradice of which they abhor even the
idea), they fw.allow, in a drink, a piece of filver, or even brafs,
beaten into a powder; and they believe this potion to be of
great efficacy in forwarding the cure.
We have already mentioned the aCtual cautery made ufe o f by
the Laplanders for pains in the hands and feet. This will bring
to the recolleClion o f our medical readers the moxa, which has
formerly been tried as a remedy in fits of the gout. The moxa is
a dry vegetable fubflance, brought from China and Japan, not u n like
the common plant mugwort: it is applied to the fkin, and
thefe fet on fire. W h a t is ufed by the Laplanders for this pur-
pofe is th t boletus foment arius, Lin. Similar applications were in
ufe during the age o f Hippocrates, and even employed by the
prince of phyficians himfelf.
The finew of the fore legs of the rein-deer is applied as a remedy
for fprained ancles, or other ftrains of the legs, by binding
it round the part aggrieved: but a particular reitriition is to be
P p 2 obferved