8 



THE ILLINOIS FAEMER. 



Jan. 



[From the Chicago Medical Examiner.] 



Milk Sickness — Cicuta its Cause. 



Wr. I' DiT'iR : I am a stranger to you but your 

 public acts are familiar, to me, in consequence of 

 wHch I have taken the hbt'ity of ad JteHsing you 

 cn an important tiubject, and so, through your 

 ss.sistance, biog the matter before the State 

 Agriculrural Society. 



I liesire to call the attention of the Society to 

 the fact that there exsts through the W>,ctt rn 

 States', a diseasie known by the name of " milk 

 sickne*?." Whole fnm lies have, in a few day^, 

 been consigned to the gnive ; and year y we hear 

 Cif numbcjs dying with thii* di>-e-ise Ttie "milk 

 Bicktiess " procredi from the u*e of c^'w's milk, 

 taken into the stomach as food — the milk biing 

 poiscnedfrom some cause unknown and mysteri- 

 ous. In try opinion it wc uld not be violating 

 the rules of gocifty to investigate this subject 

 fully, nnd ascertain, for certain, the cause of the 

 ♦' milk Kickness," ai d how to avoid it. In addi- 

 tion to the hundreds of the human family who 

 sicken or die yearly of this disfase, vast nnmbt-r 

 of cattle die, or are infected with the *' trtmhUs" 

 so much that it requirts a long time for them to 

 recovir; and it is a mntter of doubt whether 

 they ever become scuud and healthful for either 

 beef or tiiilk 



In 1836, I became a '•es'dent of the Slate of 

 Inuiaiia, and lived on a branch of the White 

 Water, in a settlement where the " milk sickness" 

 prevailed ; several persons died with it, and 

 many were sick, who recovered ; large numbers 

 of cattle a'so died. 1 resolved, if possible, to 

 find out the cause of the malady ; I questioned 

 all the intelligent settlers, and the physicians. 

 in relation to it, and its cause. The doctor said 

 it was cau.ed by using mi k from cows that had 

 eaten some strong narcotic ; the farmers had va- 

 rious rpinions about the matter; some thought 

 it was caused by the poison vine that adheres to 

 the trees, some the poison o»k. and some were 

 Bure that it was a poi>on dew on the grass ; but 

 the larger portion believed it was produced by 

 some unknown kind of weed, and o'hers again 

 •were certain that it was produced by the cattle 

 drinking water out of springs containing poison, 

 and ihey were under the impression that the 

 poison proceeded from some mineral substance. 

 I have frequectly visited the localities where it 

 •was said, if cattle run, they would take the 

 " treiiiblcs," and numbers die, and to use the 

 milk from cows that fed there, would produce 

 th'j"milk sickness." In all these localities, I 

 fo'ind springs running over large pieces of wild, 

 uncultivated land, producing ewampy and damp 

 ground. On this wet land little else ^rew but 

 the cicuta. The cieuta has large fleshy roots, 

 from which the stem is easily detached. The 

 cattle in dry times resort to these springs for 

 drink, and tramp off the roots, which decay, and 

 impart their poisoning substance to the water , 

 the impressions made by the cattle's feet in the 

 •wet land, become filled with water, and they 

 drink the water saturated With de jomposed cicuta 

 roots; death or disease of some kind must inevi- 

 tably follow. On cultivated grass, or prairie 

 l-irt.. the roots of the cicuta are imbeded in the 



turf, and will not come up by taking hold of the 

 top. The top contains but little poison, and the 

 catde are seldom injured by feeding on the culti- 

 vated land, or in the prairies. In woodland, 

 where it is wet or moist, the cicuta is found with 

 its roots slight'y covered with rotton leaves and 

 light earth ; these are extracted readily, and are 

 eatt n with the tops, by the cattle, and this must 

 produce sickness or death In the woods the 

 cicuta seldom seeds, grows lender, and is not re- 

 jected by cattle. A farmer in Indiana, said he 

 was sure that the water of certain springs waa 

 the cause of ihe "tremble-'" in the cattle. He 

 had a bvrge enclosure of deadened timber; ia 

 one corner of the enclosure there were two 

 springs ; when the cat tie drunk from these springs, 

 which they res'rted when it became dry, •' they 

 took the trembles," and some died. On inquir- 

 ing, I ascertained that there was considerable 

 swamp about these springs, and nothing grew 

 there but the wild parsnip, (the cicuta 's known 

 by the name of wild p irsnip, water hemlock, 

 wrlf's bane, etc.,) auC, that as "thick as the 

 bri.«ties on a dog's back." I intimated to him 

 that it might be the "wild parsnip" that pro- 

 duced the "trembles." "No." he said, "it 

 would kill sheep, but wouli not hurt the CHitle;" 

 he W4S ce'tain tl e water, and nothing but the 

 water killed the cattle, because he had fenced up 

 the springs, and kept the cattle from the water, 

 and after that he had lost no more. 



I have seen in swampy and wet places large 

 quantities of detached roots of the cicuta ia 

 every stage of decay, the water colored by the 

 decompo)-ed roots, and this water was drank by 

 the cattle. In all p'aces where I fonnd cicuta in 

 this condition, 'milk sickness" prevailed. After 

 this, I resided in Oiiio, on the ea^t fork of the 

 Little Miami, near where the inhabitants had 

 suffered severely from the "milk sickness ;" five 

 iu one family had died with it, and a numVer of 

 cattle had died also. I lived in the neighborhood 

 eleven years. I made examinations of the local- 

 ity where it was supposed that the cattle obtain- 

 ed the article that poduced the disease, vvhen 

 I first visited the country 1 saw large quantities 

 of the cicuta in the damp parts of the woods, 

 and about the woods it grew in vast quuntties. 

 The tramping of tho cattle killed it to a great 

 extent about the springs, and that which grew 

 in the woods was pulled up and eaten by them. 

 In every year's visit I found the cicuta less plenty, 

 and at the end of ten years very little was to be 

 found. In proportion as the cicwfa disappeared, 

 so did the " milk sickness " and the " trembles " 

 in the cattle. 



If you feel disponed to have the foregoing sub- 

 ject investigated by the Illinois Agricultural So- 

 ciety, I should be pleased to hear from you as 

 soon as convenient. George Fishee. 



— Any light cn the above subject is always 

 interesting to the Western reader. We know 

 not how muoh of truth there may be in the above, 

 but it is at least worthy of the attention of far- 

 mers residing in the infected districts. Will some 



of our readers enlighten us in the premises ? 



Ed. 



