4 BULLETIN 1391, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
According to W. E. Baker, M. D., of Grandfalls, a person is taken violently 
ill with the disease, oftentimes when the cow which provided the milk does 
not show symptoms of alkali; again, a calf being fed the same milk will 
sicken at the same time. The symptoms, as Doctor Baker described them, 
are profound weakness, trembling, nausea and vomiting, extremely rapid heart 
action, subnormal temperature, and complete paralysis of the lower bowel. If 
the animal remains perfectly quiet, it usually recovers ; if violently exercised, 
death usually results. 
In 1920 Thornber and Brown (5, pp. 457-459) published a de- 
scription of a loss of cattle in Arizona apparently from the rayless 
goldenrod, the plant being identified by them as Bigelovia corono- 
pifolia, and reported a feeding experiment with a horse which pro- 
duced no injurious effect. 
Johnson and Archer (2, pp. 24-26) published a statement in 1922 
giving the symptoms and pathological effects produced by the plant. 
In the winter of 1922 and 1923, Dr. W. H. Enneis, health officer, 
Carlsbad, N. Mex., made a report to the department on some cases 
of human milk sickness and sent some tissues from a fatal case, 
which were examined in comparison with the animal tissues from the 
Aplopappus cases. 
The foregoing comprises the information derived from literature 
and correspondence. Personal investigations by the writers have, 
added somewhat to these statements and confirmed many of them. 
The most serious complaints of the " alkali disease " or " milk 
sickness " are from the Pecos Valley, in the region from Roswell, 
N. Mex., to Fort Stockton, Tex. The trouble has been especially 
acute from Carlsbad, N. Mex., to Grandfalls, Tex. Popularly it is 
definitely connected with the " milk sickness " of human beings. 
There have been considerable losses of cattle and horses. It is gen- 
erally believed that the disease is conveyed by milk and butter. So 
sure are the people of that fact that it is almost impossible to sell 
milk or butter from some Pecos Valley farms. The products are 
considered safe only when the cows are fed and are not allowed to 
run on pastures. To engage in the dairy industry is practically 
impossible in some localities. 
Although the disease is especially prevalent in the Pecos Valley, 
it occurs in other localities in New Mexico and Arizona. The disease 
has had an especial interest, because by many it has been considered 
identical with the "milk sickness" or "trembles" known in the 
Central and Eastern States for more than a century, the cause of 
which has been definitely proved only within the last few years to be 
the plant Eupatorium ur tic a> folium, commonly known as white snake- 
root. The symptoms produced in human patients by Eupatorium 
urticcefoliwn can not be distinguished from those produced by Ap- 
lopappus heterophylJus. Physicians from the milk-sick areas of the 
East have recognized the symptoms of western patients as identical 
with those that they have seen in their former homes. Doctor Doron, 
formerly of Patagonia, Ariz., made a diagnosis of cases occurring 
there from the description made in the diary of his grandfather, who 
had been a physician in Indiana. 
The work of Jordan and Harris (o), already referred to, seemed 
to confirm this belief in the identity of the eastern and western dis- 
eases, and many have accepted the theory that plants have no con- 
nection with the disease except as mechanical carriers of the causal 
