Images of Old Hawaiʻi

by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Blending Traditional and Modern Medicine

“Medicine is generally practiced by the priests (kahuna la‘au lapa‘au)”. The medical practice in the 1820s and 1830s was not as advanced as many people might assume. The end result of treatments by Western doctors and Hawaiian doctors were the same: purging, vomiting, sweating or managing pain. Disease was not well understood and was attributed to a mixture of outside influences and physical influences of the afflicted person. Climate, age, temperament, gender, lifestyle, and “constitution” (a subjective idea of how susceptible to disease people were) were thought to cause disease.

Remedies included changes of climate, cupping or bloodletting (in order to weaken the disease you had to weaken the patient), changes in diet, herb or plant based ingestible medications, external topical plasters, and chemicals were all part of the Western pharmacology. Dr Gerrit P Judd, a missionary, was one of the very few Western doctors in Hawai‘i that was interested in learning about Hawaiian medical practices and remedies. He hired Native Hawaiian assistants and apprentices. Over the years Dr Judd modified his practice to include Native Hawaiian ingredients in his treatments. He also published the first medical textbook in 1838, Anatomia, and founded the first medical school in the Kingdom of Hawai‘i in 1870.

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He Aupuni Palapala Ko‘u

“E nā ali‘i a me nā maka‘āinana, he aupuni palapala ko‘u, a ‘o ke kanaka pono a na‘auao, ‘o ia ko‘u kanaka.” (To all ali‘i and commoners alike, mine is a literate country, and the just and intelligent man is my countryman. (Kauikeaouli – Kamehameha III; Nūpepa Kū‘oko‘a (May 23, 1868;) Puette) The planning for the formal written Hawaiian language in the early part of the nineteenth century was started by the American Protestant missionaries who arrived in Hawaii, starting in 1820.

“… we commenced printing the language in order to give them letters, libraries, and the living oracles in their own tongue, that the nation might read and understand the wonderful works of God.” Through the collaboration between the Hawaiian Chiefs and the American Protestant missionaries, by 1832, the literacy rate of Hawaiians (at the time was 78 percent) had surpassed that of Americans on the continent. (Laimana)

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First Medical School

Dr Gerrit P Judd published the first medical textbook in 1838, Anatomia, the only medical textbook written in the Hawaiian language. Judd, a medical missionary, had originally come to the islands to serve as the missionary physician, intending to treat native Hawaiians for the growing number of diseases introduced by foreigners. Judd was one of the very few Western doctors in Hawai‘i that was interested in learning about Hawaiian medical practices and remedies. He hired Native Hawaiian assistants and apprentices.

“On the 9th of November, 1870, he opened a school with ten pupils.” Their classwork and lectures were supplemented by a practicum in a dispensary (pharmacy/doctor’s office.) Conceived and organized in the manner of one-man medical schools of that time in America, with which he and many of his colleagues would have been familiar, Judd’s school was probably just as good as many of them, and no worse than most. On October 2, 1872, Judd recommended that all 10 students be certified and licensed medical physicians. The licenses were issued on October 14, 1872.

by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Ho‘ohano

Ho‘ohano was an assistant to missionary Dr Gerrit P Judd; a graduate of Lahainaluna, he was a medical student, of whom Mrs Judd said, “He was a valuable assistant both in the preparation of medicines and prescribing for office patients.” Dr Judd sought to learn of Hawaiian traditional medicine and incorporate it with his Western practice. Western medicine in the 1820s and 1830s was not as advanced as many people assume it to be. The physical treatments of Western doctors and Kahana Lā‘au Lapa‘au were actually very similar.

“It has been an object with me not to oppose the practice of the native physicians in mass, but to endeavor by the best means in my power to correct and modify their practice so that it shall save, not kill, the people. It is my intention, if possible, the coming year to make Ho‘ohano acquainted with the native practice as it now exists and make him the agent for collecting facts upon the subject. … These investigations occupied several weeks of the year and have been continued as opportunity afforded. We also instituted a series of experiments on native medicines which resulted pretty much as all experiments of the kind usually do.” (Judd) (Judd’s assistant has been referred to as Ho‘ohano and Ho‘okano.)

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Simon Peter Kalama

Besides the publication of newspapers, pamphlets and books at Lahainaluna Seminary (now Lahainaluna High School,) another important facet of activity off the press was engraving. Simon Peter Kalama was one of the best engravers; he compiled the first map of Hawaiʻi published in Hawaiʻi and executed most of the “views” of the islands’ landscapes.

Working with Dr Gerrit P Judd, Kalama transcribed notes of kahuna lapa‘au that were published in Ka Hae Hawaii in 1858 – 1859 – the best source of information on traditional kahuna lapa‘au (Hawaiian medicine) that exists today. During the Wilkes expedition, on January 16, 1841, Kalama saved Judd from death in the crater of the volcano Kilauea. A few years later, Kalama enjoyed a lucrative career as a surveyor.