August 16, 1803

Tumors and Wens

We observed several people near Pittsburg affected with a tumour on the throat like a wen. Inquiring into the cause of it, we were informed that they imputed it to some effect of the climate under the brows of the high mountains where they reside, and added that even dogs and some other animals were subject to it. Indeed we saw a couple of goats who had this uncomfortable appendage to their necks.
—Thaddeus Harris^[1]Thaddeus Harris, The Journal of a Tour into the Territory Northwest of the Alleghany Mountains Made in the Spring of the Year 1803, p. 45–46 in Reuben G. Thwaites, Travels West of the Alleghanies … Continue reading

Defining “Wen”

Owen Dictionary, which was brought on the expedition, gives this definition for Wen:

WEN, a tumour or excrescence that arises on different parts of the body, and contains a cystus, or bag filled with some peculiar matter, of which physicians reckon three kinds, viz. when this matter is soft, resembling pulp, the wen is called atheroma; if like honey, meliceris; and if like suet, steatoma.^[2]A Dictionary of Arts and Sciences, Owens 1764 ed., s.v. “wen.”

A month after leaving Fort Mandan, Lewis reported that “Boils and imposthumes have been very common with the party,” and that he treated them with “emmolient poltices.” While at Long Camp in 1806, Jean Baptiste Charbonneau—the son of Toussaint Charbonneau and Sacagawea—had an illness which left him with an “imposthume” on his neck. See May 27, 1806 and May 28, 1806.

Related: The Traveling Library | Wilderness Medicine | Lewis’s Medicinal Purchases