1872: George Catlin describes Native American Respiratory Therapists

George Catlin (1796-1872)

There are many people we can thank for preserving the history of respiratory therapy, and among them is Georgy Catlin.  He was a painter who traveled to North and South America taking portraits of Native Americans.

By living among them between the years of 1832 to 1839, he became an expert of sorts on their way of life.  Included among his wisdom was knowledge on their view on air and breathing. 

Along with making portraits of them, he recorded their habits and their rituals.  He noted that their view on medicine was not the same as ours, as the Indians essentially thought of medicine as a mystery.  So as they used the term medicine pipe, they were essentially saying mystery pipe, meaning they didn't know how it worked.

Catlin, in "Notes of Travels Amongst the North American Indians," said he observed that the Indians, in their savage state, were healthier and had fewer diseases  --- including weakness of the lungs, bronchitis, and asthma -- than people who lived in the civilized world.  He made a similar observation in his book "The breath of life, or mal-respiration."   (3, page 3, 73) John D. Hunter (3, page 342) and John Lawson (4, page 151)

Georege Catlin oil on canvas
portrait of native american
See-non-ty-a,
an Iowa Medicine Man
1844-45 (Wikepedia)

He said he decided to write "breath of life" because...

...I have visited 150 Tribes, containing more than two million souls; and therefore have had, in all probability, more extensive opportunities than any other man living, of examining their sanitary system; and if from those examinations I have arrived at results of importance to their health and existence of mankind, I shall have achieved a double object in a devoted and toilsome life, and shall enjoy a twofold satisfaction in making them known to the world; and particularly to the Medical Faculty, who may perhaps turn them to good account." (2, page 3-4)

Along with diseases being rare, he observed that fatal conditions of the lungs were rare among the savages and the animals that lived amid the wild -- dog, ox, horse, etc.  This was not true among civilized man.  Lung ailments, along with ailments of the spine and abdomen, were rarely heard of among savage people, while civilized people had an amalgamate of ailments, including a variety of diseases, and aches and pains.
  

The natives believed that breathing was essential to life, and of this Catlin said:

Per Catlin: "Shut—your—mouth. " (2, page 71

Man's cares and fatigues of the day become a daily disease, for which quiet sleep is the cure; and the All-wise Creator has so constructed him that his breathing lungs support him through that sleep, like a perfect machine, regulating the digestion of the stomach and the circulation of the blood, and carrying repose and rest to the utmost extremity of every limb; and for the protection and healthy working of this machine through the hours of repose, He has formed him with nostrils intended for measuring and tempering the air that feeds this moving principle and fountain of life; and in proportion as the quieting and restoring influence of the lungs in natural repose, is carried to every limb and every organ, so in unnatural and abused repose, do they send their complaints to the extremities of the system, in various diseases; and under continued abuse, fall to pieces themselves, carrying inevitable destruction of the fabric with them in their decay.... The two great and primary phases in life and mutually dependant on each other, are waking and sleeping; and the abuse of either is sure to interfere with the other. For the first of these there needs a lifetime of teaching and practice; but for the enjoyment of the latter, man needs no teaching, provided the regulations of the All-wise Maker and Teacher can have their way, and are not contravened by pernicious habits or erroneous teaching... If man's unconscious existence for nearly one-third of the hours of his breathing life depends from one moment to another, upon the air that passes through his nostrils; and his repose during those hours, and his bodily health and enjoyment between them, depend upon the soothed and tempered character of the currents that are
passed through his nose to his lungs, how mysteriously intricate in its construction and important in its functions is that feature, and how disastrous may be the omission in education which sanctions a departure from the full and natural use of this wise arrangement? (2, page 15-16)

He observed that native American mothers closely watched the breathing of their infants, of whom rarely, if ever, passed from this life (In fact, Catlin quotes an Indian Chief as saying that it is rare that a child under the age of ten passes away.)  Catlin explained:

When I have seen a poor Indian woman in the wilderness, lowering her infant from the breast, and pressing its lips together as it falls asleep in its cradle in the open air, and afterwards looked into the Indian multitude for the results of such a practice, I have said to myself, "glorious education! such a Mother deserves to be the nurse of Emperors." And when I have seen the careful, tender mothers in civilized life, covering the faces of their infants sleeping in overheated rooms, with their little mouths open and gasping for breath; and afterwards looked into the multitude, I have been struck with the evident evil and lasting results of this incipient stage of education; and have been more forcibly struck, and shocked, when I have looked into the Bills of Mortality*, which I believe to be so frightfully swelled by the results of this habit, thus contracted, and practised in contravention to Nature's design

There is no animal in nature excepting Man, that sleeps with the mouth open; and with mankind, I believe the habit, which is not natural, is generally confined to civilized communities, where he is nurtured and raised amidst enervating luxuries and unnatural warmth, where the habit is easily contracted, but carried and practised with great danger to life in different latitudes and different climates; and, in sudden changes of temperature, even in his own house... The physical conformation of man alone affords sufficient proof that this is a habit against instinct, and that he was made, like the other animals, to sleep with his mouth shut—supplying the lungs with vital air through the nostrils, the natural channels; and a strong corroboration of this fact is to be met with amongst the North American Indians, who strictly adhere to Nature's law in this respect, and show the beneficial results in their fine and manly forms, and exemption from mental and physical diseases, as has been stated.

The Savage infant, like the offspring of the brute, breathing the natural and wholesome air, generally from instinct, closes its mouth during its sleep; and in all cases of exception the mother rigidly (and cruelly, if necessary) enforces Nature's Law in the manner explained, until the habit is fixed for life, of the importance of which she seems to be perfectly well aware. But when we turn to civilized life, with all its comforts, its luxuries, its science, and its Medical skill, our pity is enlisted for the tender germs of humanity, brought forth and caressed in smothered atmospheres which they can only breathe with their mouths wide open, and nurtured with too much thoughtlessness to prevent their contracting a habit which is to shorten their days with the croup in infancy, or to turn their brains to Idiocy or Lunacy, and their spines to curvatures—or in manhood, their sleep to fatigue and the nightmare, and their lungs and their lives to premature decay.

If the habit of sleeping with the mouth open is so destructive to the human constitution, and is caused by sleeping in confined and overheated air, and this under the imprudent sanction of mothers, they become the primary causes of the misery of their own offspring; and to them, chiefly, the world must look for the correction of the error, and, consequently, the benefaction of mankind. They should first be made acquainted with the fact that their infants don't require heated air, and that they had better sleep with their heads out of the window than under their mother's arms—that middle-aged and old people require more warmth than children, and that to embrace their infants in their arms in their sleep during the night, is to subject them to the heat of their own bodies; added to that of feather beds and overheated rooms, the relaxing effects of which have been mentioned, with their pitiable and fatal consequences. (2, pages 16-19)

He was actually onto something here that may have been proved in the modern world.  Many of the diseases and plagues that ail civilizations are of our own doing.  By taking children away from nature, their immune systems aren't exposed to microscopic forces necessary for maturation.  This results in diseases such as asthma, or so states the Hygiene Hypothesis and the Micro Flora Hypothesis.  Yet these are modern theories. Catlin came to this realization by his own observations, without ever having done any studies.


"Who ever waked out of a fit of the Nightmare in the middle of the night
with his mouth strained open and dried to a husk, not knowing when or
 from where, the saliva was coming to moisten it again,without being
willing to admit the mischief that such a habit might be doing to the lungs,
 and consequently to the stomach, the brain, the nerves, and every
 other organ of the system?"  It requires no more than common sense
to perceive that Mankind, like all the Brute creations, should close their
mouths when they close their eyes in sleep, and breathe through their
nostrils, which were evidently made for that purpose, instead of dropping
the under jaw and drawing an over draught of cold air directly on the lungs,
through the mouth; and that in the middle of the night, when the fires
have gone down and the air is at its coldest temperature—the system at rest,
 and the lungs the least able to withstand the shock. (2, page 21-22)

Like John D. Hunter, Catlin observed that sleep was essential to resting the lungs and the limbs from the labors of life.  While one is sleeping the breathing and the pulse is slowed.  Yet too much sleep is also bad. Catlin explained:

In natural and refreshing sleep, man breathes but little air; his pulse is low; and in the most perfect state of repose he almost ceases to exist. This is necessary, and most wisely ordered, that his lungs, as well as his limbs, may rest from the labour and excitements of the day.

Too much sleep is often said to be destructive to health; but very few persons will sleep too much for their health, provided they sleep in the right way. Unnatural sleep (due to sleep inducing drugs?), which is irritating to the lungs and the nervous system, fails to afford that rest which sleep was intended to give, and the longer one lies in it, the less will be the enjoyment and length of his life. Any one waking in the morning at his usual hour of rising, and finding  by the dryness of his mouth, that he has been sleeping with the mouth open, feels fatigued, and a wish to go to sleep again; and, convinced that his rest has not been good, he is ready to admit the truth of the statement above made.

Breathing with mouth closed is ideal  (2, page 22)

There is no perfect sleep for man or brute, with the mouth open; it is unnatural, and a strain upon the lungs which the expression of the countenance and the nervous excitement plainly slow. (2, pages 20-21)

So the Indians, at least according to Catlin, were very conscious of the importance of breathing and sleeping.  They must, in a sense, be considered among the first true respiratory therapists.

*Bills of Mortality are a means of keeping death statistics in the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries, and mainly started after the plague of London in 1592.  Statistics were generally taken every week in order to keep track of how many people died, along with the cause of death. Sometimes they also included the age of the deceased.  See figure here and here.  Bills of Mortality are believed to have originated due to the ideas published by John Gaunt of England in his 1662 publication "Natural and Political Observations upon the Bills of Mortality." The book is considered the "first book of vital statistics."  He learned that more boys were born than girls, and that by creating an accurate death count he could estimate the population.  This was, therefore, the "first step in the application of mathematical methods to the interpretation of statistics." Truly, however, the first people to keep track of such statistics were the ancient Hebrews and Romans. (5, page 273)

References:

1. Catlin, George, "Manners, Customs, and Condition of the North American Indians," 1841,
2. Catlin, George, "Breath of life, or mal-respiration and its effects upon the enjoyments and life of man," 1872, New York, John Wiley and Sons, Publishers
3. Hunter, John D., "Memoirs of a Captivity Among the Indians of North America," 1823, London, Paternoster-Row
4. Vogel, Virgil J., "American Indian Medicine," 1970, London, Oklahoma University Press
5. Garrison, Fielding Hudson, "An introduction to the history of medicine," 1922, Philadelphia, W.B. Saunders Company

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1870: Briante's Indian methods of healing asthma and bronchitis

On the title page of his book "The Old Root and Herb Doctor" published in 1870, John Goodale Briante said that he lived "for many years with the St. Francis Tribe of Indians, at Green Bay; also for several years with the Pottawattamies and other tribes. "otanic

He said his book contained "directions for preparing and using their most valuable remedies, as used by him (Briante), in his extensive practice throughout the Eastern and Middle States." (1, page 136-7)(2, title page)

In the preface of his book, he said:

The Remedies given may be relied upon, and are the result of a long and careful study of the system followed by the natives of this country, whose singular success in the treatment of disease is well known;and are the same used by the Doctor, during a successful practice of thirty years.

If the directions here laid down are carefully followed it will, in many cases, save the expense and trouble of calling upon the family physician and prove of the greatest value at times when his attendance cannot be procured.

Did he really learn from the Indians?

We may never know.

It is possible, however, that many of the remedies he described were actually Indian remedies.  Yet it is also possible they were simply made up remedies, or remedies borrowed or stolen from Aborigines of some other nation.

Most Indian remedies were simple, containing only one or two roots or herbs. Most remedies containing more than this were probably just made up remedies. 

Regardless, he profited by selling his products, and his book, during the later course of the 19th century, providing hope for millions of people seeking the all mighty cure for the ailments that plagued them, while at the same time avoiding the costly trip to a medical doctor's office.

He did this near the end of the hey day of Indian, or botanic medicine, before there were laws regulating it.

The following are his remedies for asthma and bronchitis:

1.  Asthma:

Take one half ounce Elecampane root (good for diseases of the chest), pulverized, one half ounce of Flos Sulphur, four scruples of Belladonna leaves, pulverized, one Drachm of Senega root; Mix them well and divide into ninety powders, one of which is to be taken three times a day. (1, page 27, 91)

2.  Asthma:

• DROPS FOR ASTHMA. Take two ounces Syrup of Orange Pee, on-e half ounce Wine of Ipecac, one half drachm Tr. Stramonium, one drachm Tr. Opium. In severe attacks, give one tea-spoonful every hour. (1, page 53)
• Indian Turnip, or Dragon Root,  Poplar Bark and Owen's Root (2, page 90-91).

2. Bronchitis:

Take Blue or White Vervain, steep and give a wine-glass full three times a day. Rub the neck and stomach with "Specie of Oil." (See Receipt.)

All of the ingredients could easily be found in their natural environment and prepared by anyone.

References:  

1. Vogel, Virgil, "American Indian Medicine," 1970, London, Oklahoma University Press
2. Briante, John Goodale, "The Old Root and Herb Doctor, or the Indian Method of Healing," 1870, New Hampshire, Granite Book Company

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1823: More native American asthma remedies

John D. Hunter lived among the Indians and learned about their medicine through the normal course of life. There were many other "whites" like Hunter who lived among the Indians, some who were kidnapped by them as Hunter was, and others for the simple purpose of studying them as George Catlin did.

Virgil J. Vogel researched and studied their records and recorded a list of Indian remedies in his book "American Indian Medicine.

Some of these remedies as they pertain to our asthma and respiratory therapy history are listed here: :

• Skunk Cabbage:  Mainly used for consumption more so than asthma, but it was used as an expectorant. In either case, the dried roots were used. Imagine a medicine man bringing you this stinky remedy and saying, "Well, eat up."   (2, page 207, 367)
• Red Cedar Berries (perus virginiana) and Wild Ginger (Asarum canadense):  A "steeped infusion" of these was used by the Rappahannocks. (4, page 207)
• Balsam Poplar:  It was turned into a salve that was inserted into the nares by the Pillager Ojibwas to relieve congestion caused by a cold (which would probably sometime be allergies).  It was used for colds, catarrh (a cold), and bronchitis. (2, page 276-7)
• Indian Balsam:  (Balsam fir (Abies balsamea):  Vogel says that Hunter said it was good for colds, coughs, asthma, consumption. (2, page 277-8)
• Corn oil:  Dr. D.C. Jarvis (1881-1966) wrote about folk medicine, and noted that corn oil was often recommended for hay fever, migraine, and asthma. (2, page 293)
• Cottonseed oil:  Used in South Carolina and by the Mayans to treat asthma. (2, page 295)
• Ginsing Root (Panax quinquefolius L):  It was often used as a panacea by the North American Indians, Europeans and the Chinese.  The French are known to have used it for asthma.  (2, page 307)
• Green Helebore:  Used by the Iroquois to relieve catarrh. It was also used as a narcotic to treat asthma and other lung diseases.  It was also used to reduce heart rate and blood pressure.  (2, page 316)
• Indian Hemp (Apocynum cannabinum L.): It's often used as a narcotic, and is the source of marijuana.  It made it's way to the United States and Europe to be included in asthma powders and cigarettes.  It was used by the Indians for asthma and whooping cough, although mainly because it "promoted perspiration." (2, page 319)
• Indian Turnip:  Hunter says it was mixed with spikenard and wild licorice to treat a cough. It was also used for asthma, chronic catarrh, fever, and a variety of other ailments. An "Indian Doctor" by the name of John Briante said "the dried and pulverized root" was good as an expectorant, for asthma.  Dr. David Clapp (1811-1853) said it was good for asthma and chronic cough.  (2, page 322)
• Jimson weed (Datura Strammonium):  The Rappohannock Indians of Virginia smoked leaves for shortness of breath.  It is similar to Belladonna, and was often used in folk medicine as a hallucinogenic and asthma remedy.  As it made it's way to America and Europe in the early 19th century, it was determined to have an alkaloid called Atropine in it that was a mild bronchodilator.  (2, page 328) Modern medicines such as Atropine, Atrovent, Spiriva are been derived from this plant, although many of the modern mediicnes are synthesized (made in a factory)
• Mullen (Verbascum thapsus L.):  The leaves were smoked to relieve asthma and sore throat by the Mohegans and Penobscots.  The Catawbas "boiled het root and sweetened it to make a syrup for croup in children." The Creeks "boiled the roots with those of button willow for a drink used internally for coughs. The leaves were also boiled and the patient bathed in teh infusion while it was hot.  The Forest Potawatomis smoked the dried leaves for asthma, but Smith is uncertain whether they learned teh practice from teh whites or vice versa.  A smoke smudge was made of the leaves and the fumes inhaled for catarrh adn to revive an unconscious patient.  The Menominees smoked the root for pulmonary disease.  Smith said he had often seen whites smoke the leaves for asthma and bronchitis, and tehat the flowers were believed to be diuretic (good for heart failure) and had been used for tuberculosis."  (2, page 341)
• Tobacco:  It was used (probably ingested) by the Maya for asthma, cough and headache, as well as a variety of other ailments.  Some considered it a panacea.  It was even used by some to treat bad breath.  Of interest to note is that while many people loved this panacea, Vogul writes that "The 'Counterblaste to Tobacco' of James I has been widely quoted for its quaint condemnation of smoking as a 'custome lothsome to the eye, hateful to the nose, harmefull to the braine, dangerous to the Lungs, and in the blacke stinking fume thereof, nearest resembling the horrible sigian smoke of the pit that is bottomlesse.'"  Vogul also notes that the "Menominees inhaled tobacco smoke to induce a narcotic state.  The blowing of tobacco smoke into the ear for earache was reported in this century among the Chickahominys, the Mohegans, and the Malecites... Louisiana Choctaws blew tobacco smoke on snakebites."  So tobacco was used as early inhaltions and fumigations of sorts.  (2, page 380-385)
• Wintergreen:  It was made into a tea and used as a remedy for asthma.  It was also used for "coughs and diseases of the breast," according to Dr. Clapp.  (2, page 394)
• Balsam of Copaiba:  It was used as an expectorent and diuretic
• Balsam of Tolu:  It was used as an expectorant.  Vogul also notes that "In 1822 Dr. Bigelow called it useful in chronic bronchitis, asthma, and catarrh." 

So there's a small sample of some of the remedies that were used by native Americans, many of which made their way to the American and European pharmacopoeia. 

References:

1. Vogel, Virgil J. "American Indian Medicine," 1970, London, Oklahoma University Press

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1823: Native American sweat houses, an early panacea

Native Americans of both South and North America believed that sweating was one of the simplest and most effective means of treating diseases. The various people who lived among or studied native Americans observed their use of herbal remedies to cause a sweat, or sweat houses.

Virgil Vogel, in his 1970 book "American Indian Medicine," notes that the Aztecs used the sweat bath as a cure all for many ailments. There were various experts who noted the use of sweat baths among the natives of North America. He quotes Jean Bernard Bossu (1720-1792) who observed the Choctaws of Canada using "steam cabinets in which are boiled all sorts of medicinal and sweet-smelling herbs. The vapor filled with the essence and salts of these herbs enter the patient's body through his pores and his nose and restores his strength." (2, page 255)

John D. Hunter also describes sweating, and says it's a good asthma remedy. In fact, Hunter says that most of the medicines used to treat asthmaare meant to induce a profuse sweating, which is believed to cause healing. You may read of other remedies, and sweating is usually the desired result; rather, improved breathing through sweating. (1, page 410)

We must understand that sweating was not just used for asthma, it was sort of a panacea for many ailments. (2, page 256) It was a way of cleansing the body and the soul. Hunter describes this:

Nes-ni-ne-shu-ka-ah. — The salt water runs. Sweating. — Among all the various Indian nations with which I am acquainted, sweating constitutes one of their principal remedies, and amongst some of them * like bathing, it is practised for the pleasurable sensations which it produces. Various means are resorted to for the attainment of this object. Some effect it by drinking warm infusions; others assist these means by enwrapping themselves in blankets or skins, while a majority have separate apartments prepared for the purpose of procuring it by exposure to the steam of water. For this, a house sufficient in size to contain one, two, or more persons, is constructed of sticks or logs; commonly on the sloping side of a hill, and convenient to water. An excavation is next made in the earth-flooring, in which they place heated rocks. The bath thus prepared, the patient closes himself in, and pours water on the rocks till the apartment is filled with steam, and the intended effect produced. Herbs and roots of various kinds are placed on the rock, with a view that their virtues may unite and ascend with the vapour. During the process, the patient drinks freely of the infusion of dittany, mountain tea, or other herbs. He remains in as long as the heated rocks retain warmth sufficient to produce vapour. When he leaves it, he wraps himself in a buffalo robe or blanket, and immediately, if able, repairs to his house, and if not he is assisted and goes to bed. I have frequently known them to remain in until they became quite faint. When this bath is used as a luxury, they frequently, on leaving it, plunge into cold water; and I have never witnessed any dangerous or ill effects to arise from the practice. Some tribes resort to another expedient to induce sweating. They make a hole in the ground of a size and depth sufficient to contain the body of the person wishing to undergo the operation. They continue a fire in it till it becomes quite heated. The patient wrapped in his blanket or robe, stands over the excavation, water is poured in it, and the steam rises between his body and its envelop; while others again immerse themselves in the water.They also produce sweating by covering themselves in the hot sands of the barrens, and I believe with much advantage in some cases. (This may also be considered an early, or primitive, fumigation.) (1, page 423-44)

It was a soothing remedy and one that was easy to do. It was a remedy that was inculcated deep into folk medicine. I remember when I was a kid and having asthma trouble, my dad would sit with me in the bathroom with the hot water showering in the tub. My grandma would have me sit with my head
under a towel in the bathroom sink with the hot water on. Surely this provided a cool sensation, but it rarely if ever provided any breathing relief.

References:

1. Hunter, John D., "Memoirs of a captivity among the Indians of North America, from childhood to the age of fifteen: with anecdotes descriptive of their customs to which is added some accounts of the soil, climate and vegetable productions of the territory westward of teh Mississippi," 1823, London, Paternoster-Row
2. Vogel, Virgil J. "American Indian Medicine," 1970, London, Oklahoma University Press

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