Today’s Cleansed Yet Truly Morbid Fact!
Historically, the treatment of wounds has varied significantly from population to population. Among some Northern peoples snow was laid on a bleeding wound. The North American Indians, on the other hand, often applied hot leaves or packed the wound with hot sand, with eagles’ down or with scrapings from the inside of tanned hides. In certain cases they cauterized wounds with a hot brand. As they usually kept wounds clean and treated their wounded in isolated lodges, they often obtained better results than the white man. The Melanesians applied a bandage of tapa cloth tightly to the bleeding part. The cautery or hot iron was used to control hemorrhage in many parts of the world. The only tribe known to ligate blood vessels (with tendons) is the Masai.
The natives of Victoria, Australia, looked upon bleeding with favor as it cleansed the wound. They were in the habit of encouraging the flow by suction, by changes in posture and kneading the tissues. When the wound had been sufficiently purified by these means, they laid upon it a lump of resin as a dressing. The same tribe are said to have been aware of the danger of retained wound secretions and when the lips of a wound closed prematurely they would open the wound up again. The Dacota Indians seem to have used drainage, inserting wicks of soft tree bark into their wounds. They also washed them out with a kind of syringe made of a bladder and the quill of a feather.
Culled from: The Early History of Surgery
