there was any hope of recovery. Doctors were few and far away. The two most terrible and deadly diseases with which we were scourged, were smallpox and diphtheria.

How We Vaccinated Ourselves

One year some of the neighbor children got vaccinated to protect them against smallpox. One of the boys had a very sore and» swollen arm from it. He came over to our place and several of us boys got out behind the barn and vaccinated one another. We got the vaccine matter from his arm, and performed the operation with a pin. It took on me severely and I had a very swollen arm. It never would catch on me afterwards. Our sore arms let our secret out, and we had to tell where we got vaccinated. We had no idea or fear of ill effects that might have come from the pin scratches or unhealthy vac- cine. Bleeding was a common practice for many kinds of ailments.

The older people used a number of medicinal plants. Among them were tansy, catnip, mint and hoarhound. They also gathered wild medicinal plants such as peppermint, thoroughwort or bone-set. Goldthread was used for sore mouth. They steeped wild cherry bark for coughs. They gathered the poisonous mushroom called the fly agaric, which they put in dishes with sweetened water, for killing flies. It was a large, yellow-topped mushroom with white flakes on the top of the cap. There was a great abundance and variety of. these pois- onous mushrooms or toadstools. We had to be very careful gather- ing the kind that was good for food, as a mistake would mean certain death to those eating the poisonous ones. We knew of no antidote for their poison. In appearance some of them were like edible ones, Children should be taught to recognize the difference between the good and the bad, and to leave the bad alone. And this instruction should be given in other things, as there are many bad things that poison the mind as some mushrooms do the body. Many ignore Wise advice and run risks that prove fatal. Most of the older folk knew the good varieties of mushroom, and we younger ones. kept strictly to the kind we were sure of. They were delicious.

The women were very skilful in ordinary cases of sickness. When babies came these women were the only doctors and nurses. Their

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