Lewis Medical Equipment
Lemhi Pass, MT
At the Missouri Headwaters Spring rest area just south of Lemhi Pass was a Forest Service Ranger who each day drives out the the rest area to talk to visitors. He brings with him an example of the medical equipment that Lewis used on the expedition. Lewis had received his limited medical training from Dr. Benjamin Rush, a leading physician in Philadelphia. One of Dr. Rush's concoctions was his "Bilious Pills" which were used as a purgative. The men called them Rush's Thunderbolts because of what they did to their digestive systems. Many of the powders that Lewis used would not even be thought of as safe today, for example the Toxic Lead Acetate in the last picture.