10 MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS. 



disease is contracted by leaving the cattle in these areas over night 

 and that the disorder can be avoided by withdrawing them from 

 pasture before dark." Corn fodder experimentally exposed to the 

 dew in these areas communicated the disorder to a yearling. 6 



One of the peculiarities claimed for this disease is that cows will 

 show no symptoms so long as they are milked, while their nursing 

 calves die with typical symptoms, but when the milking ceases the 

 cows develop the symptoms in the usual manner. In other words, 

 the poisonous agent is partially eliminated by the milk/ The urine 

 is also claimed to eliminate a portion of the poisonous body.** The 

 suspected milk in some cases was noted to be of a greenish color, 6 

 but usually there was no characteristic noted which is peculiar to it J 



The disease was apparently known to the early French mis- 

 sionaries in the eighteenth century, but accounts of it first appeared 

 in medical literature in 1809-10.^ They were numerous from 1840 to 

 1850, but now notices seldom appear. 



The etiology of this disorder has remained in doubt, and Osier, h 

 in an address before the young medical officers of the United States 

 Army, mentions its causation as one of the many intricate problems 

 remaining to be solved. Rewards were at one time offered by several 

 States for the solution of this question, but these do not hold at 

 present. Opinion has been divided as to whether " trembles," or 

 milksickness, is of parasitic origin o«r due to the eating of certain 

 plants, as Rhus toxicodendron or R. venenata, 1 Bignonia capreola'ta, 



a Beacli, W. M. Milk-Sickness. Trans. Ohio Slate Med. Soc, vol. 38, pp. 

 128, 130, 1884.— Lea, W. W. Cursory Remarks on a Disease Vulgarly Called 

 Milk Sick. Phila. Jour. Med. and Phys. Sci., vol. 2, p. 51, 1821.— Way, J. H., 

 1. c, p. 312. 



6 Walker, J. W., 1. c, p. 483. 



c Kinimell, J. A., 1. c, pp. 50, 52.— Drake-, D., 1. c, pp. 198, 200.— Graff; G. B., 

 1. c, p. 360. 



d Graff, G. B., 1. c, p. 360. 



e McCall, A. Facts and Observations on the Milk Sickness. West. Jour. 

 Med. and Phys. Sci., vol. 3, p. 467, 1830. 



f Graff, G. B., 1. c, p. 359. 



Drake, D., 1. c, p. 162; also West. Jour. Med. and Phys. Sci., vol. 3, p. 482, 

 1830. 



n Osier, W. Aequanimitas, 1904, p. 116. 



* Landrum, Z. C. Rhus Toxicodendron, the Cause of Milk Sickness. Atlanta 

 Med. and Surg. Jour., vol. 7, A, p. 1, 1861. — Chase, S. C. Cause of Milk-sickness. 

 Chicago Med. Jour., vol. 18, p. 438, 1861.— Mcllhenny, J. J. Treatise on 

 the Disease Called the Milk-Sickness, Springfield, 1843, p. 6.— Nichols, J. H. 

 Milk-Sickness. Clinic, Cincinnati, vol. 10, p. 26, 1876. — Brewington, W. J. Milk- 

 Sickness. Clinic, Cincinnati, vol. 10, p. 76, 1876. — Crook, J. W. Twenty Propo- 

 sitions on Milk-Sickness. North-West. Med. and Surg. Jour., vol. 14, p. 491, 

 1857. — Jones, J. T. Short Essay on Milk Sickness (Colica trementia). East 

 Tenn. Rec. Med. and Surg., vol. 1, p. 324, 1852-53. 



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