MILK SICKNESS. 



MILK SICKNESS. 



observed copious alvine discharges largel} 

 mixed with blood. One ounce of butter o: 

 cheese, or 4 ounces of beef, either raw or boil 

 ed, administered 3 times a-day, will certainly 

 prove fatal within days, and often earlier 

 In these cases all exertions and exercise mus 

 be prevented, or death will occur much sooner 

 even as early as the third day. When an ani 

 mal has been subjected to its influence for only 

 a short time, and is induced to fatigue itself, or 

 is driven a distance at full speed, he suddenly 

 stops and falls, and the severity and duration 

 of the convulsion or spasm is in proportion to 

 the intensity of the action of the poison. Often 

 he will appear to entirely recover from the 

 first attack, but to be repeated upon the re- 

 newal of the exercise to a sufficient degree. 



There is, however, one animal which, from 

 some peculiarity of organization, is rendered 

 proof against the pernicious effects of this 

 otherwise powerful agent. I allude to the hog. 

 Most industriously did I feed a troublesome 

 sow running at large, administering, daily, 5 or 

 6 pounds of infected beef. This was perse- 

 vered in for more than a fortnight, and under 

 the hnitment she fattened, when I was compel- 

 led to desist from the great quantity necessary 

 to supply her voracious appetite, without en- 

 joying the satisfaction to perceive one muscu- 

 lar twitch as an evidence that it produced the 

 slightest effect. When I last saw her she en- 

 joyed excellent apparent health, and was the 

 mother of a numerous offspring. 



From all the experiments I have made, and 

 the reasoning used, I can arrive at no conclu- 

 sion, so far as relates to the nature of the ulti- 

 mate cause in man, to whom it can only be 

 communicated through the medium of an ani- 

 mal, and that capability of production can be 

 acquired only by the animals of circumscribed 

 localities. An intelligent medical friend, alike 

 distinguished as a statesman, Dr. John W. 

 Davis, of Indiana, in a late letter to me, ex- 

 presses a belief that milk is never a cause of 

 the disease. He merely states his belief of the 

 fact, without the evidences or observations 

 which have led him to the denial of a proposi- 

 tion heretofore viewed as settled beyond dis- 

 pute. My own experience enables me to say 

 that I have seen a peculiar affection, which I 

 feel assured could have been no other than the 

 milk sickness, in a city remote from any of its 

 local causes, attacking every individual who 

 partook of a certain cheese which had been 

 purchased from a wagon arriving from an in- 

 fected district. In this instance the well-marked 

 symptoms, confined to those only who partook 

 of this cheese, appearing nearly at the same 

 time, with no occurrence of new causes after 

 the removal of this cause, all together afford 

 strong evidence of the nature of the origin. 



There is a murderous practice now carried 

 on in certain districts, in which the inhabitants 

 will not themselves consume the butter and 

 cheese manufactured; but, with little solicitude 

 for the lives or health of others, they send it in 



cities, when the medical attendants viewed i' 

 as some anomalous form of disease, not sus- 

 pecting the means by which poison had been 

 conveyed among them. Physicians of the lat- 

 ter city having been questioned particularly on 

 this subject, have mentioned to me a singular 

 and often fatal disease which appeared in cer- 

 tain families, the cases occurring simultane- 

 ously, and all traces of it disappearing sud- 

 denly, and which I cannot doubt were the 

 result of poisoned butter or cheese. This reck- 

 lessness of human life it should be our endea- 

 vour to prevent, and the heartless wretches 

 who practise it should be brought to suffer a 

 punishment commensurate with the enormity 

 of their crime. From the wide extent of the 

 country in which it is carried on, we will rea- 

 dily perceive the difficulties to be encountered 

 in the effort to put a stop to the practice. This 

 being the case, our next proper aim should be 

 to investigate the nature of the cause, and es- 

 tablished a more proper plan of treatment by 

 which it may be robbed of its terrors, and the 

 present large proportionate mortality dimi- 

 nished. 



Nature and Treatment of the Disease. Much 

 diversity of opinion exists among medical men 

 in regard to the essential nature and most 

 proper mode of treating this fatal disease, from 

 which hundreds of persons throughout the 

 West and Southwest annually perish. 



Owing to the want of success which has so 

 uniformly attended the practice of their phy- 

 sicians, many of the inhabitants depend en- 

 tirely on their domestic remedies. It is in that 

 country emphatically one of the opprobria me- 



"The primary operation of the poison," says 

 Dr. Graff, " seems to be on the brain and ner- 

 vous system, and this is indicated by the cere- 

 )ral irritation which so often precedes, and al- 

 ways accompanies an attack, as well as by au- 

 :opsic appearances. Without an exception, in 

 he animals poisoned, I always found the brain 

 and meninges phlogosed with a greater or less 

 degree of inflammatory action." 



Dr. Graff relates the following circumstance.'. 

 connected with the occurrence of the disease, 

 which will tend to show its mode of develope- 

 ment and characteristics. The entire family of 

 a Mr. Frazier, moving westward, purchased a 

 [uantity of fresh beef in Indiana, of which every 

 member of the company partook heartily, daily, 

 until the evening of the fourth day, when they 

 arrived in the Doctor's neighbourhood. On 

 his evening they all retired apparently in their 

 usual health, but during the night he was sum- 

 moned to attend a female. with an attack of 

 milk sickness. Upon a careful examination 

 he discovered the peculiar smell present with 

 every member of the family, and, on inquiry, 

 ascertained about the beef, and the locality in 

 which it was purchased, "which," he says, " at 

 once satisfied him that they were doomed. Be 

 fore the next morning every member of that 

 company of 6 was attacked in a violent ^an. 



arge quantities, to be sold in the cities of the 

 West, particularly Louisville, Kentucky, and 

 St. Louis, Missouri. Of the truth of tkis I am 

 well apprized by actual observation, and I am as 



certain that it has often caused death in those ' its prevention ani cure. 



3z2 



ner, and only one of the number recovered.' 



The Legislatures of several Western States 

 have offered rewards for the discovery of the 

 origin of the milk sickness, in order to lead to 

 The reward offered 

 821 



