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Show COMMIBSIONER OF INDIAX AFFAIRS XXXV lying on dirty blankets or on skins spread over the dirt floor. If the case require silrgical skill be contrives, as best he may, a resting place for his patient. He performs the necessary surgical operation, admiu-isters and leaves medicine, and gives explicit instructions as to the care of the sufferer; but he departs, feeliug that his directions will be neg-lected altogether, or, at most, will b~ imperfectly followed, and that perhaps all his work, in which the surgeon's skill was displayed, will be undone by sorue meddleso~ne or iurloisitire friend of his Indian patient. Among the white race few oases of protracted illness could be treated with hope of successful results if left to domestic, m~profcssional care, and nothing even approachiug proper care in such cases can be expected of the Iudians; for in the Incliihu home not only the skillful hand of the professional nurse is unknown, but there is thtrb no food suitable for il sick person, nor any one who knows how to prepare st~chfo od. The meclical corps of the I~ldiaus ervice numbers eighty-one physi-cians, and among them are men who have been skillfi~la, ctive, and nn-tiring iu their elforts to ithprore the sanitary contiition of the India,ns under their care. There are over two hundred thousand Indians, ex-clusive of the Fipe Civilized 'rribes, who may call upou these physi-cians for professional attention; but no nilrses and no assistants are provided, except at zhe few agencies where hospitals are located. But notwithstandir~g this lack of hcilities some advance has been made in . the sanitary condition of the Iodians, and their growirrg confidence in the white man's methoils and remedies, as shown by an increased call on physicians for t,heir services, is encouraging. And here it may be said that the necessity for the establishment of a suitable, but not large, hospital st every agency becomes more manifest every year. In x hospital under control of the ageucy physician Indian patients coold be properly cared for, many cases woold be cured that otherwise would terminate fatally, and untold suffering would be relieved. Moreover, Indians could be employecl as nurses, and they could be iuvtructed in the nursing of the sick, in tile acllninistration of medicines, and in the prel~arationo f simple, nourishing, and palatable dishes. In the few cases in which hospitals have heeu est.ablished at age,noies and scl~oolsth e resolts ha,ve been eminently satisfitetoq, both in the succexs of the treat~uellt and in tile inci<lent.al effect on tile patient'a relatives and frien<ls,w ho~ef aith in the white man and his methods is increased when they see soferiug thus ca,red for, onred, or relieved. Care of the sick is one of the poiuts which mark the difference between the savage and the civilized man, and humanity demands that Iodians stricken with disease shall uot be allowed to linger iu pain and misery for waut of the ordinary alleviations and comforts which civilized Chris-tian pity knows how to render. While so ~ntlch is being done for the healltlty Indian, the plea will not be made that the Indian stricken by disea,se can not be properly provided for. The reports received fro111 physicians located at schools separated from ngeucies SIIOWth e treittlnent during the year of 2,196 Cases of |
