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Indian’s Arcana. Devoted to Illustrations of Indian Life, Indian Medicines, Science, Art, Literature, and General Intelligence.
Boston: Indian Medical Institute, 15 April 1858. Vol. III, No. 2 Folio newspaper, 19.75” x 13”. 4 pp. . CONDITION: Very good, toning to a portion of p. 1, occasional spotting and tiny losses along old folds. An early issue of this long-running monthly paper published by the “Indian Medical Institute,” an organization founded in Boston by a man who, having allegedly traveled among Native people, “reduced” their collective wisdom to a “science.” This issue of Indian’s Arcana includes a lengthy front-page article on “Logan,” famous during his day as a Colonial peacemaker and ally (his English name apparently resulting from his friendship with James Logan, secretary of William Penn), and famous by the 1850s for his eloquent lament on the murder of his family by white settlers. The article, beginning with a full-length portrait of its subject, concludes with what was evidently intended as a poignant quote from Dr. Greene, founder of the Boston Indian Medical Institute: “Never did I feel…so keenly the wrongs done the Indian by the white man, as when I looked out upon these hills and vales, and thought of the noble men who were (once at least,) the rightful Monarchs of their own homes—Alleghans, Allgonquins—Cayugas, gone, all gone!” Other sections in the issue include “Bits of Wampum,” “A Friendly Talk” by the editor, praising Dr. Greene, and brief articles on such wide-ranging topics as “Healthy Recreations,” “Poor Indians,” and “Fretting About Trifles.” Among the apparently more serious pieces are those covering “Facts from the Indian Medical Institute,” “Are Cancers Curable?” “Consumption,” and “Scrofula,” and the final page of the issue lists numerous cures offered by Greene: “Indian Panacea,” “Indian Restorative Bitters,” cancer syrups, washes, drops, and ointments, “Asthma Pills, “Anti-Bilious Pills,” “Anti-Dyspeptic Pills,” “Humor Salve” (“designed for Pimples upon the face”), “Hair Restorative,” “Indian Vermifuge,” and so on. Directions for contacting Dr. Greene, two cases illuminating his curative genius, and a blurb on his “Electro-Medicated Baths” close out the issue. Beneath the arching newspaper title is an illustration showing a domestic Indigenous scene on the plains, a top-hatted figure—evidently representing Greene—in conversation with a Native man who seems to be offering him a medicinal plant. Reuben Greene, born in Vermont in 1817, defied his father’s wishes for a “literary career” and entered the medical profession, ultimately deciding to focus on cancer and chronic diseases and founding the Boston Indian Medical Institute in the mid-1850s (“Reuben Green”). Promoting himself as the father of “Indianopathy,” Greene served (or swindled) the people of Boston for more than thirty years. The monthly newspaper of the Indian Medical Institute, initially called Nature’s Arcana, was soon changed to Indian Arcana, and appeared from about 1856 to 1875. The Institute housed a cabinet of curiosities in which could be seen “several hundred cancers, some of enormous size, which have been removed from persons from the various walks of life” (Historical Sketch, p. 91), and in 1884 Greene’s practice was taken over by his two sons, Frank E. and J. Alonzo, who marketed a “nerve tonic,” called “Nervura,” under their father’s name. REFERENCES: “Reuben Greene (1817)” at WikiTree online; Historical Sketch of Boston, containing a brief account of its Settlement, Rise and Progress, with a glance at its Present and Prospective Prosperity (Boston: Printed by Edward L. Mitchell, 1861), pp. 90–91.
Item #10191
On Hold
Price: $275.00
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