B. P. I.— 356. 



MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS 



B. P. I.— 321. 



THE SUPPOSED RELATIONSHIP OF WHITE SNAKE- 

 ROOT TO MILKSICKNESS, OR "TREMBLES."" 



By Albert C. Crawford, Pharmacologist, Poisonous- Plant Investigations. 



HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION. 



Many of the early settlers of the Ohio Valley, especially in Indi 

 ana and Illinois, were affected with a peculiar disorder known as 

 milksickness, a disease which is said to have caused the death of 

 Abraham Lincoln's mother. Persons with this disorder usually 

 showed no mental disturbances save slight apathy, although late in 

 the course of the disease there might be coma. 



Milksickness was usually characterized by vomiting, which might 

 be bloody, and obstinate constipation, but in rare cases this was 

 absent. 5 So* marked was this constipation that the name paralysis of 

 the intestines was once suggested for the disorder. The abdominal 

 walls were retracted and the pulsations of the abdominal aorta could 

 thus be easily seen. Later in the course of the disease tympanites has 

 occurred.^ The urinary secretion was diminished and the breath 

 took on a peculiar fetid odor which was considered pathognomonic. 



a One of the most serious diseases which formerly threatened the life of man 

 and beast -in the forested parts of the Ohio Valley and adjacent territory was 

 that known as milksickness, or " trembles." Although of late years much less 

 trouble has been experienced, an occasional outbreak is reported. 



In responding to a request that the United States Department of Agriculture 

 ^investigate an attack of milksickness occurring near Peoria, 111., a favorable 

 opportunity was obtained-to test the widespread and persistent popular belief 

 that the plant known as white snakeroot (Eupatorium ageratoides L. f.) is 

 responsible for the trouble. 



After a study extending through several months, Dr. Albert C. Crawford, 

 Pharmacologist, acting under the direction of Dr. R. H. True, Physiologist 

 in Charge of the Poisonous-Plant Investigations of this Bureau, has shown in 

 the results summarized in this technical paper that the eating of the plant of 

 the white snakeroot by animals or man is not followed by the disease and that 

 there is probably no relation between them. — B. T. Galloway, Chief of Bureau. 



b Crookshank, N. On the ," Sick Stomach " of the Western Country, or 

 Gastro-enteritis. Phila. Jour. Med. and Phys. Sci., vol. 12, p. 254, 1826. 



c Dawson, J. Causes and Treatment of Milksickness. Proc. Med. Conven- 

 tion, Ohio, 1842, p. 48. 



d Wood, G. B. Treatise on the Practice of Medicine, vol. 1, p. 462, 1858. 

 121—i 



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