Smallpox

Water Avens:

   The Thompson Indians of British Columbia reported that during a smallpox epidemic which occurred before 1900, every individual who drank a strong, dark decoction made from the boiled roots of a closely related species of avens survived the disease. They took the same preparation for any disease characterized by a rash, such as measles, chicken pox, etc. It was used by other tribes for sore throat and coughs.

   The Dispensatory of the United States attributes the medicinal values of this species to the tannin it contains. This agent, valued for its property of drying out tissues, was used as an astringent when it was official in the U.S. Pharmacopoeia from 1820 to 1882.

   The water avens is found in meadows and bogs throughout Canada and the northern states. The boiled root was once known as Indian chocolate and was drunk with sugar and milk. The plant is used as a chocolate substitute throughout the year, but one expert on wild foods thinks it is at its best in the fall or early spring.This beverage was formerly valued as a tasty home remedy for dysentery, diarrhea, and stomach upsets. Since the drink is said to be delicious and does contain tannin, this may have been one of our earliest "sugar-coated medicines."

Pitcher Plant:

   The swamp dwelling pitcher plant was once regarded as being a specific cure for smallpox by many tribes of Canada and the Great Lakes region of the United States. The Indians believed that the use of the root not only offered some form of immunity but shortened the term of the disease when contracted and prevented the formation of deep "pits" in convalescence.

   A British surgeon corroborated the Indians' view with regard to the effectiveness of pitcher plant when in 1861, he delivered a paper in London citing his experiences in Canada. During a smallpox epidemic among the Indians, every case was cured by an infusion of the root as administered by an old Indian woman.

   Nevertheless the physicians of that time did not accept the pitcher plant into their practices, nor was it accepted in the pharmacopoeias. Dr. Millspaugh cites a reference he found scrawled

   across the face of an article on the use of this drug in small-pox .... A former owner of the book has written: This medicine was thoroughly tested by Mr. John Thomas Lane in the spring of 1864 at the small-pox Hospital at Claremont, in Alexandria, Va., for the period of several weeks, in the presence of the medical officers of the Third Division Hospital; and proved to be without any curative powers in this disease, and Mr. Lane a humbug. He lost more than fifty percent of the cases of variola committed to him, more than were lost by any other treatment.

   The same author then cites examples of men who were equally confident that an infusion of the root was absolutely beneficial in smallpox, one man declaring that his brother's life was saved by this remedy.

   Here then is another example of a plant remedy that was highly regarded by the Indians and rejected by official medical circles. Might this prove to be a plant worthy of further research?

Carmine Thistle:

   The Navajos of Arizonia and Utah prepared a lotion of the entire carmine thistle plant and chewed the freshly dug root to treat smallpox. This distinctive species was also used in most cases of fever. This plant belongs to a genus that contains many edibles species.