The Bulletin 
7 
tainty to have existed prior to that time. Drake (1836) makes the 
statement “that this malady has been observed in some parts of North 
Carolina more than sixty years ago ( i. e., prior to 1776) and that 
it had been an endemic in certain localities of Tennessee, Kentucky, and 
Ohio from their first settlement.” Coleman (1822) states that “sick 
stomach has been prevalent in some of the western counties of the State 
of Ohio since their first settlement.” McCall (1823) makes specific 
mention of several cases which occurred in North Carolina between 
1779 and 1800. 
Bawlings (1874) also makes reference to “its first avowed recogni¬ 
tion in the State of ISTorth Carolina—now over ninety-six years ago” 
(i. e., prior to 1778). It is further stated in this account that “the dis¬ 
ease followed emigration in its westward march from ISTorth Carolina 
to Tennessee and Kentucky, and prevailed in various parts of Ohio, 
Indiana, and Illinois. The report of Carney (1847) mentions the 
occurrence of the disease, “I think sixty or seventy years ago (1777 or 
1787) in the Carolinas” and “upwards of fifty years since, it prevailed 
in Kentucky.” In speaking of the disease in Tennessee, Lea (1821) 
asserts that “as soon as settlements commenced in the county of Frank- 
lin, about 12 or 15 years since, near the mountain, many cattle were 
lost from some unknown poison, the nature of which is still a mystery 
among the inhabitants. Occasionally whole herds have been found 
dead in some sequestered cove of the mountains.” There are also early 
records of the disease in Indiana made by Faux (1823) and in north¬ 
western Missouri by Long (1823). 
An interesting historical account comes from the pen of Flagg (1836) 
from observations made while he was in Monroe Countv, Illinois. 
This states that “a mysterious disease called the milk sickness —be¬ 
cause it was supposed to be communicated by that liquid—was once 
alarmingly prevalent in certain isolated districts of Illinois. Whole 
villages were depopulated; and though the mystery was often and thor¬ 
oughly investigated, the cause of the disease was never discovered. 
By some it was ascribed to the milk or to the flesh of cows feeding upon 
a certain unknown poisonous plant found only in certain districts, hv 
others to certain springs of water, or to the exhalations of certain 
marshes. The mystery attending its operations and its terrible fatality 
at one period created a panic in the settlers; nor was this at all won¬ 
derful. The disease appears now to be vanishing.” 
Other writers share this idea that the malady is disappearing since 
Winans (1840) states that “I had three to five hundred patients dur¬ 
ing the whole time the disease prevailed. It has now nearly or quite 
vanished away.” Beach (1883) in speaking of the disease in Madison 
