Herbal remedies in Inca times reduced fevers and coughs, healed broken bones, and stopped itching from insect or animal bites. The same herbs perform the same functions in today's Andes.
Matecclu, a wetland plant with a single leaf on a narrow stem, provides effective treatment for eye infections. Corn, one of the staples of the Inca diet, helps prevent the accumulation of kidney and bladder stones. Applications of a concoction made from chilca leaves relieves aches from rheumatism, while sarsaparilla, a soft drink ingredient, relieves painful sores. Of course, coca, which held a pri
Mary place in the Inca pharmacopoeia, is still used to treat altitude sickness, relieve hunger, and battle fatigue. The molle tree provides berries for making beer, bark to improve the healing of open wounds, and twigs that make excellent rudimentary toothbrushes.
Herbalists in modern Peru sell their remedies at the open market. Along with the package of herbs, patients can get a quick diagnosis and instructions on using the compound. Many of the primary ingredients used in these medicines are the same as those used in today's prescription drugs, including quinine and coca.
Meet. Their lancet was made of a silex blade, fastened in the fork of a small, split stick, the tip of which they placed over the vein, they struck the other end of the stick with a flick of the finger.”
Trepanning-cutting holes into the skull for medical purposes-was common practice on the battlefields where men struck by stone clubs often had crushed skulls. Often, coca and other drugs were used to numb the patient before surgery began. Relieving pressure on the brain from such wounds or removing bone splinters were not the only reasons for trepanning. Mental conditions (schizophrenia and bipolar disorders) and physical afflictions (epilepsy and migraine headaches) may have been other reasons for brain surgery.
It appears that peoples of the Andes performed brain surgery on living patients earlier in history and more often than other world cultures. Archaeologists have dated trepanned skulls back to roughly 400 b. c.e. Literally hundreds of skulls with a variety of circular or rectangular holes cut into them have been found in burial mounds throughout Peru-many more than exist from other civilizations that performed trepanning. Scientists discovered through forensic medicine that, in some cultures,
Trepanning was performed on corpses as a way to release the spirit or soul of the deceased. Inca incisions, on the other hand, were performed on living bone. Examination of Inca trepanned skulls reveals that bone healed, and a surprising number of the patients lived.
Healing involved the entire community. Women assumed responsibility for care and feeding of the sick, and this included anyone within the ayllu. Since people rarely lived alone, someone was always on hand to tend a wounded or sick person. Itinerant healers consulted with local herbal experts in choosing the correct prescription for any ailment. The Inca culture left nothing to chance, however, and also used supernatural forces to aid the healing process. Ritual sacrifice, such as burning coca leaves or cloth, encouraged the interest of the appropriate gods.
Although people of the Andes cultures did not experience disease of epidemic proportions-smallpox, measles, or flu-before the arrival of the Spanish, they did contract serious ailments. Evidence indicates that tuberculosis, malaria, syphilis, and leprosy existed in the Andes during Inca times, as well as intestinal and stomach worms, such as tapeworms and pinworms, and lice infestations.
The lack of a written language handicapped the advance of Inca medicine. Knowledge of how to diagnose and treat disease had to be handed from parent to child, and many potions were no doubt lost. Luckily, Spanish priests preserved many recipes for herbal tonics, infusions, and ointments when they recorded local remedies in their journals.
World History
