MILK SICKNESS, OR TREMBLES. 415 



For my own part, I would most willingly subscribe to the opinion 

 that some mineral or mineral combination possesses the agency of its 

 production. Yet I confess that I cannot even imagine what must be 

 the nature of that substance producing such violent and anomalous 

 eflfects, and in- its operations so unlike anything with which we are 

 acquainted. The cause, whatever it may be, when it enters into the 

 organization of the animal, either by inducing a specific action in the 

 tissues of the economy, or by a combination with some of the elements" 

 of the body, forms a poison not more violent in, its operation than 

 singular in the eflfects it can produce. If this cause should prove to 

 be a mineral, it must be one of great subtlety, from its diflSculty of 

 detection, and from its virulence it must possess qualities and activity 

 not equalled nor resembled by any metal or metallic combination yet 

 discovered. No substance of which we" have any knowledge will 

 produce like phenomena. 



Hoping that if T could succeed in developing the same symptoms 

 and eflfects by some active or poisonous article, it might, by the 

 probable analogy of the agents, lead to the discovery of the nature 

 of this poison,'! patiently tried many. The action of none of the 

 mineral poisons were found at all similar. My experiments were 

 chiefly made on dogs, and in them I found the symptoms immediately 

 preceding their death, occasioned by a fatal dose of strychnia, 

 greatly to resemble those produced by the continued administration 

 of the flesh of an animal which had perished from milk sickness. The 

 appearances on dissection diflfer in a greater degree, and particularly 

 in cases of poisoning by the vegetable proximate piinciple, exhibit the 

 blood in a state more nearly resembling a healthy condition. With 

 the view of an extensive series of experiments, I procured the body 

 of a full grown cow, which had perished suddenly from the aftection, 

 with violent symptoms. The brain was immersed in a copious efifu- 

 sion of blood, and in no part of the body was it found coa^^ulated. 

 The flesh in external appearances did not differ from that of healthy 

 beef, unless that it was slightly darker, and a thin bloody fluid con- 

 tinually dropped from it. By exposing it by the side of a healthy 

 portion, I found that the influence of the sun rendered the specimen 

 from the diseased animal oflfensive, and turned it to a greenish hue, 

 whilst the other remained comparatively sound and unaflfected. It 

 can possess nothing peculiar in its taste, for persons who have par- 

 taken of it have not remarked anything unusual, and animals will 

 exercise no preference, if the two descriptions be simultaneously pre- 

 sented to them. The beef which I procured was subjected to the 

 ordinary process of salting, which did not in the least aflfect its poi- 

 sonous properties. 



Butter and cheese, manufactured from the milk drawn from an 

 infected cow, are supposed to be the most concentrated forms of this 

 poison They possess no distinguishing appearance, odor, or taste. 



