11th. February Monday 1805.
The party that were ordered
last evening set out early this
morning, the weather was fair and could
wind N.W. about
five Oclock this evening one of the wives of Charbono was
delivered of a fine boy.[21]
it is worthy of remark that this was
the first
child which this woman had boarn, and as is common
in such cases her
labour was tedious and the pain violent;
Mr. Jessome
informed me that he had freequently admininstered
a small portion of the rattle of
the rattle-snake, which he
assured
me had never failed to produce the desired effect, that
of hastening the
birth of the child; having the rattle of a
snake by me I gave it to him
and he administered two rings
of it to the woman broken in small pieces
with the fingers and
added to a small quantity of water. Whether this
medicine
was truly the cause or not I shall not undertake to determine,
but I was informed that she had not taken it more than ten
minutes
before she brought forth perhaps this remedy may
be worthy of future
experiments, but I must confess that I
want faith as to it's
efficacy.
