Page:The Incas of Peru.djvu/193

Rh an extensive knowledge of the use of medicinal herbs and roots, and their advances in surgery are attested by the discovery of skulls at Yucay and elsewhere on which the trepanning operation has been performed. They used infusions of several herbs as purgatives and stomachics, as well as the root of a convolvulus; other herbs were used for colds and pulmonary complaints, and salves were used, consisting of leaves and seeds of certain plants dried, pounded, and mixed with lard, some for wounds, others for rheumatism. For fevers they used several tonics, including a gentian. The chinchona plant was certainly used locally as a febrifuge, but not, I think, universally. In the Loxa province the bark was used, and known as Quina-quina. In the forests of Caravaya an infusion of the Chinchona flowers was given for ague, and called Yara chucchu. The name of calisaya, the species richest in quinine, is derived from two Quichua words: Ccali, strong, and sayay, to stand.

From time immemorial men of a tribe called Collahuaya or Charasani, from Upper Peru, have collected medicinal herbs and roots, and, as itinerant doctors, have carried them all over the empire of the Incas. I have collected all the names of medicinal herbs and roots from ancient authors, especially Cobos. I have also received information on the same subjects from people with whom I came in contact who were likely to know the herbs now used by the Indians; and I have examined the bags of the Collahuayas at Lampa and other