Lea Mackenzie’s Voyages

those ready aids which add so much to the comfort, and is
indeed a principal characteristic of civilised life, I was under
the necessity of employing my judgment and experience in
accessory Circumstances by no means connected with the
habits of my life, or the enterprise in which I was immediately
engaged,”

‘These people seemed to be more ignorant than the
generality of savages regarding the remedial virtues of herbs
and plants, and Mackenzie was now obliged to become
their physician and surgeon. His first case was that of a
woman whose swelled breast had been lacerated by flint
stones In an attempt to produce a cure. Cleanliness and
poultices were more effective than the mutilations. A work-
man developed a sudden pain in his thumb which prevented
him from using his axe, and Mackenzie was surprised to
find a red stripe half an inch wide extending from the
thumb to the shoulder. There was violent pain and chilli-
ness and shivering. ‘he case was beyond his skill, but to
relieve his patient’s mind the doctor concocted a liniment of
rum and soap, “‘a volatile liniment, with which I ordered
his arm to be rubbed but with no effect.’ The man raved
during the night, and blotches appeared on his body and
pains in his stomach, whereupon the surgeon conceived the
idea of taking some blood from him and, “I ventured from
absolute necessity to perform that operation for the first
time, and with an effect that justified the treatment.”? The
man was completely restored to health and activity.

His house was ready for occupation on 23 December, on
which date he quitted his tent and moved into the hut.
‘The men were then set to work to build a range of five
houses, seventeen by twelve feet, for themselves. All the
materials were in readiness. “It would be considered by the
inhabitants of a milder climate to be a great evil to be