MILK-PARSLEY. 



MILK SICKNESS. 



a slow, interrupted, gossiping manner, and 

 leaving part of the milk in the udder, will ruin 

 the best cow in the world." If the cow has 

 sore teats, foment them before milking with 

 warm water, and after milking, dress them with 

 the following salve: Melt together 1 oz. of yel- 

 low wax, and 3 oz. of lard, and as these begin 

 to get cool, rub in ai of an oz. of sugar of lead, 

 and a drachm of finely pounded aloes. (Youatt 

 on Cattle, p. 552.) 



MILK-PARSLEY (Selinvm, from selinor, the 

 Greek name for parsley ; applied to this genus 

 on account of the resemblance in the leaves). 

 This is a hardy genus of plants of no interest. 

 The only species indigenous to England is the 

 marsh milk-parsley (S. palustrc), which is pe- 

 rennial, or, as some have it, biennial, growing 

 in wet and boggy meadows, with flowers white, 

 numerous, uniform. The root serves the Rus- 

 sians for ginger; and the whole herb abounds 

 with a white, bitter, fetid juice, of the consist- 

 ence of cream, which soon dries to a brownish 

 acrid resin. 



MILK SICKNESS. This name, together 

 with "Trembles," has been applied to a pecu- 

 liar and most malignant disease occurring in 

 some localities of the Western United States, 

 and affecting certain kinds of farm-stock, and 

 persons who make use of the meat or dairy 

 products of infected cattle. Bishop Hennipin, 

 a French missionary, who ascended the western 

 waters early in the last century, mentions the 

 existence of this singular disease affecting 

 animals. Although the cause and precise na- 

 ture of so frightful a malady are still enveloped 

 in great obscurity, and the treatment is far from 

 being so generally successful as could be de- 

 sired, it may be interesting to be acquainted 

 with some facts connected with its existence. 

 Dr. George B. Graff, a highly intelligent physi- 

 cian of Edgar county, Illinois, has a communi- 

 cation upon the subject in the American Journal 

 of the Medical Sciences (April, 1841), from which 

 we draw the following details : 



The milk sickness is a disease peculiar to 

 the United States, occurring seldom, if ever, to 

 the eastward of the Alleghany mountains. It 

 is in a greater or less degree met with in all 

 the Western States, as far south as Mississippi, 

 and extends north to the boundary. The states 

 of Indiana and Illinois are most subject to its 

 occurrence, whilst its existence in the border- 

 ing states is comparatively rare. Among the 

 early settlers it committed dreadful ravages, 

 and in the formation of our Western settle- 

 ments, its prevalence often served as a cause 

 to disband a community, and compel the in- 

 habitants to seek a location which enjoyed 

 immunity from its occurrence. Many of the 

 otherwise most desirable portions of that coun- 

 try remained long exempted from settlement, 

 and even now the inhabitants of these locali- 

 ties have, as a condition of their residence, 

 entirely to abstain from the use of milk, its 

 preparations, and the flesh of their cattle. 



Its occurrence or prevalence is confined to 

 no season or description of weather, existing 

 in a like degree in the heat of summer or cold 

 of winter, and with like virulence and fre- 

 quency during a dry or wet season. An 

 opinion is entertained by some, that it is more 

 818 



frequently met with in the spring and fall 

 months, whilst others have expressed a belief 

 of its more common occurrence during the 

 heat of summer. However this may be, we 

 know of no season during which it does not 

 occur. 



The animals in which it has been observed 

 are the beef-cattle, horses, sheep, and goats, 

 which seem to acquire it with their food or 

 drink. 



We will first speak of the symptoms mani- 

 fested in cattle affected with it, as it is only 

 through them that we have yet found the dis- 

 ease communicated to man. They may be 

 affected to such a degree as that their flesh 

 and milk will produce the disease, and yet they 

 themselves manifest no unhealthy symptoms 

 whatever. This latent condition of the disease 

 may be discovered by subjecting the suspected 

 animal to a violent degree of exercise, when, 

 according to the intensity of the existing cause, 

 it will be seized with tremors, spasms, convul- 

 sions, or even death. This is a precaution 

 practised by butchers in these countries always 

 before slaughtering an animal in anywise sus- 

 pected of the poisonous contamination. An 

 ordinary degree of exertion will not develope 

 these phenomena unless it produce the symp- 

 toms usually preceding a fatal termination. 

 When, for instance, a cow is sufficiently deeply 

 affected, nothing peculiar is observed until im- 

 mediately preceding the outbreak of the fatal 

 symptoms. She is then observed to walk about, 

 without any apparent object in view ; all food 

 is refused, and there is evidence of impaired 

 vision. The eye is first of a fiery appearance, 

 increasing to a deepened red colour, until the 

 animal is observed to stagger and fall, when, 

 if she rises, the trembling of the whole muscu- 

 lar system will prevent the maintenance of the 

 standing position. The animal usually dies 

 after repeated convulsions, never lingering 

 beyond a few hours. Often it falls suddenly, 

 as if it received a blow from a heavy body 

 on the head, and death is produced in a few 

 minutes. 



From the tremulous motion imparted to the 

 muscles, the affection has received the common 

 name of the "Trembles" in cattle. A case 

 which was characterized by the great violence 

 of its symptoms, I had an opportunity to ex- 

 amine very shortly after death. The brain I 

 found suffused with a large quantity of fluid 

 blood, which, from the amount contained within 

 the cranium, must have made great pressure 

 on every part. 



In man the symptoms differ from these, and 

 are varied. The length of time found to elapse 

 from the reception of the cause to the appear- 

 ance of the disease, is dependent on a multi- 

 plicity of circumstances, as the age, sex, or 

 condition of the patient, and violence of the 

 poison. It may be developed early as the third, 

 or deferred until the tenth day. As a premoni- 

 tory symptom, a peculiar and indescribable 

 fetor from the lungs is the most prominent; 

 and so universally have I found it present and 

 to precede the disease, that in almost every 

 instance where I have been brought in prox- 

 imity to a person predisposed or attacked, have 

 I been able to foretell its approach, and pro- 





