In 1804, commissioned by President Thomas Jefferson, Lewis and Clark set off to explore the land of the west bought with the Louisiana Purchase. Their main task was to discover a water way that reached the Pacific Ocean, and explore the fauna, flora, and peoples of the new, unknown land. Along the way, they were to make peace with the numerous Native American tribes and they did this by trading items and healthcare for help from the Indians.
The expedition started out with about 50 men. Lewis and Clark had served in the Army together and decided to co-captain the expedition. By the time they reached the Mandan villages (North Dakota), their Corps of Discovery had about 30 men. The only man to have died during the entire expedition passed away due to a ruptured appendix in present day Sioux City, IA, before they got their first winter fort. Other men had deserted or been dismissed for misconduct. It was here in the Mandan village that they met Sacagawea and her fur trading husband, Toussaint Charbonneau. Sacagawea was pregnant at the time they met. Charbonneau was hired to help them forge their way west, along with this young wife, as an interpreter. Sacagawea gave birth to a son, Jean Baptiste (nicknamed Pompey), before they set out in the spring, bringing their entourage to 33.
When Sacagawea's labor stalled, Clark assisted with the birth by giving her powdered rattle snake. Within thirty minutes of the administration, Pompey arrived into the world.
President Jefferson had tutored Lewis in a great deal of things from the time he was a young man. Among these were medicine. He had a number of books in his library on surgery and anatomy, and had Lewis attend several medical care classes before starting out on the expedition. At that time, many people were skeptical of physicians and the medical practices were poorly established. A well trained layman was probably just as trustworthy as a physician, and many were compared to the snake oil salesmen. Having served together in the Army, Clark was also well trained in basic medical care. One of their tasks on the trek as ambassadors for the United States was to help the Native Americans they met on the way. Lewis would smoke and talk with the Chiefs, while Clark would dispense medical care. It wasn't until they were on the return trip that the captains started trading medical care for supplies and food.
Lewis tended to favor the company of his dog over men. Clark was more diplomatic and charismatic and tended to be favored among the men and tribes. Lewis would also treat patients, but they tended to prefer Clark. The most common complaints were eye infections, fevers, joint pain and venereal diseases. Broken bones were splinted. Hysteria was treated with laudanum. Syphilis and Gonorrhea were treated with mercury.
Lewis and Clark also picked up medical know-hows from the Indians. On the return trip, one of the soldiers suffered a back injury and could get no relief. One night as they stayed with a tribe, they witnessed an elderly man being placed in a steam tent where he stayed for a great deal of time. They then carried him to the cold river, dipped him in the icy water, then brought him back to the steam tent. Curious about this practice, and having exhausted all other remedies, they asked that their soldier could also be treated. Surprisingly, within a couple days, his back was healed enough that he could travel again and complete the trip. The Native Americans also taught the Corps. how to make pemmican. A mix of dried meat and berries made a high calorie, lightweight, and nutritious staple for their constant nomad life. Having grown sick of fish, dried fish, and fish soup, pemmican was something of a treat. Other foods that were learned about from the Indians were camas, bitterroot, cattails, Indian potatoes, wapato, and yucca plants. These were usually ground up to make a bread.
Sacagawea became ill in the summer of 1805. She ran a high fever and was in a great deal of pain. Clark became concerned for her as she not only had a young baby to care for, but she was their only chance for friendly negotiations. Once tribes saw that these white men had an Indian woman and child with them, they understood almost universally that they were there on peaceful terms. He treated her with willow bark for fever, bled her once, and gave her opium for pain. He also heard about water from a sulphurous spring that he obtained from a nearby creek. Sacagawea drank the water and within a few days was greatly improved. One might assume this was, without knowledge, an attempt using antibiotics. Other historians have commented that Clark's care of her were beyond the other medical personnel of the day. His level of concern and commitment, plus the medicines used to treat her, exceeded what would have been the typical care. On the return trip, Sacagawea's son, Pompey, suffered an infection of his neck, assumed to be a secondary infection of tonsillitis. They treated him with bleeding and enemas, but also treated him with hot boiled onion poultices that eventually helped to clear the infection and the baby made a complete recovery.
Lewis was shot in the buttock after a hunting expedition by a partially blind boatman. It was a soft tissue wound, no bones or major vessels had been harmed, but it was extremely painful as he recovered. They treated the wound with lint to keep the wound open and so it would not harbor bacteria. He made a full recovery within 25 days.
By the time the Corps of Discovery returned two years after starting out, Lewis and Clark were well established in medical treatment. They had reduced Sgt. Pryor's dislocated shoulder three times, without alcohol and bleeding, which were both optimal treatments for the time period. They didn't use bloodletting as often as recommended by physicians of the time simply because they didn't find it beneficial. Skin infections were common as many suffered from poor hygiene, malnutrition, injuries and bacteria. They would lance blisters and drain abscesses. Diarrhea was very common, and at one point all suffered from dysentery. Any number of things could have contributed to the diarrhea, including up to 10 lbs. of meat that each man could eat on a very strenuous day. They really lived a "feast or famine" way of life at times, especially through the winter. At one point they had melted down tallow candles and drank it, getting some value from the fat mixed in with wax. In the beginning of the trek, Lewis had brought along several cans of portable soup. The cans were made of lead, and Lewis had intended to melt the cans down to make bullets. It is a good thing they didn't eat these often as they would have suffered from lead poisoning. No doubt that much of their success on the expedition was pure luck. They didn't suffer from any killer diseases of the time which were small pox, yellow fever, cholera, typhoid or malaria. Only one snake bite was recorded and it was treated with bark and gunpowder.
Lewis and Clark's motto was to never give anyone anything that would harm them. They were kind, compassionate, and diplomatic in their dealings with the natives and their own men. Pvt. Joseph Whitehouse expresses, "my utmost gratitude..for the humanity shown at all times by them." Overcoming hardships and illness, sheer exhaustion and discomforts, they made a nearly 8,000 mile trek with impressive statistics. They had become physicians in the truest sense of the word.
Books and Credits:
Bleed, Blister, and Purge by Volney Steele, M.D.
Lewis and Clark for Kids: Their Journey of Discovery with 21 Activities by Janis Herbert
The Journals of Lewis and Clark by Meriweather Lewis and William Clark (unedited)
Lewis and Clark and Me: A Dog's Tale by Laurie Myers
Lewis and Clark on the Trail of Discover: An Interactive History with Removable Artifacts (Museum in a Book) by Rod Gragg
