RELATIONSHIP OF WHITE SNAKEROOT AND MILKSICKNESS. 11 



Eupatoriwn ageratoides, Lobelia inflata, etc.* Graff h eliminated 

 arsenic, copper, etc., as causative factors and showed that small 

 quantities of the butter or cheese (1 ounce) or of the beef (4 ounces) 

 obtained from animals with the " trembles," if fed to a dog three 

 times a day, would reproduce the symptoms in forty-eight hours and 

 cause death in from three to six days ; but his inoculations failed to 

 produce the disorder. Graff adds that the poisonous principle seems 

 to possess the power of infinite reproduction, stating, " It will be 

 found that each pound of flesh of that animal so destroyed will 

 possess as active powers of destruction, and will, in its turn, serve 

 to contaminate the whole body of another animal in the same degree." 

 Vermilya c claims that he was able to reproduce the disorder by feed- 

 ing Eupatorium ageratoides and that his experiments were corrobo- 

 rated by Rowe, but A. W. Bitting, of Lafayette, Ind., reported to 

 this Department his experiments in which he fed a horse 210- pounds 

 (105 kilos) of this fresh green plant in five days without serious 

 effect. He also fed two lambs with 80 pounds (40 kilos) without 

 effect. Similar experiments are reported by Drake/ The theory 

 of a plant poison was emphasized, as herbivorous animals were sup- 

 posed to be the first affected and from them the disease transmitted 

 to the carnivora, although the cases do not always originate in 

 herbivora. 6 



o Jerry, W. The Plant that Causes Milk Sickness. Med. and Surg. Rep., 

 vol. 16, p. 270, 1867.— Drake, D., 1. c, pp. 213-224.— Jones, J. T., 1. c., p. 324. 



6 Graff, G. B., 1. c, pp. 357, 360, 362. 

 - Note. — Graff says the meat is active " raw or boiled," but there is evidently 

 some mistake, as he states on page 361 that " I boiled a large quantity of the 

 beef in pure water for several hours, and afterwards evaporated the liquid 

 thus obtained to the consistence of cream. Although this extract contained 

 a large quantity of gelatinous matter, with some of the other constituents of 

 the flesh, yet, on being given in large quantities, no perceptible effect was pro- 

 duced." 



Compton, J. W. Milk-Sickness. Indiana Med. Reporter, vol. 2, p. 255, 1881. 



c Ohio State Board of Agriculture, 13th Ann. Rept. for 1858, 1859, p. 673.— 

 Barbee, J. W. Facts Relative to the Endemic Disease Galled by the People of 

 the West Milk-Sickness. Western Jour. Med. and Surg., vol. 1, p. 182, 1840 — 

 Drake, D., 1. c, p. 214. 



Note. — The view that arsenic is the etiological factor in milk-sickness has 

 been strenuously upheld by Seaton in his Treatise on the Cause of the Disease 

 Called by the People the Milksickness. Louisville, 1841. 



d Drake, D., 1. c, pp. 215-217. 



Note. — The cases described by Barbee in the Western Journal of Medicine and 

 Surgery, vol. 1, p. 182, 1840, in which dogs were killed with decoctions of this 

 plant, seem to be merely cases of so-called salt action. 



e Compare Jones, J. T., 1. c.,p. 328. , 



121—1 



