The "milk-sick" came to the Lincoln family

[Eva Elisabeth]

(09-26-2013 06:51 PM)Eva Elisabeth Wrote:  Thanks a lot for the links! That is absolutely fascinating material indeed!!!

I admit, when skimming these sources my very first thought was that of the sorcerer's apprentice:"Lord and master, hear me crying! - Sir, my need is sore.
Spirits that I've cited
My commands ignore."
At first glance they seemed to prove the "milk-sickness cause". On closer examination they don't. But they helpfully enlarge the background information to make up an opinion.

I tried to find a prove, i. e. an eyewitness' account that recorded that the two most specific symptoms (fruity breath + thirst) actually occured with the disease that hit Little Pigeon Creek in 1818. All sources turned out just to be assumptions that the disease in this community at the respective time was milk-sickness or traced back to Herndon. Also I didn't find the two significant symptoms reported by an eyewitness. In the end, Herndon seems to be the "closest" source to a first-hand account. "His" physician (see post #29) described many symptoms in detail, but didn't mention these significant two.

But in general these two symptoms were well-known and had been described. In 1810 and again in 1815, Daniel Drake, a physician and medical lecturer from Kentucky, published the first definite accounts of "the trembles." He described the symptoms as follows:

"A typical milksick patient would manifest, first, lassitude, dizziness, and loss of appetite, soon followed by nausea and persistent vomiting. Then came pain in the region of the stomach and an intense thirst. The tongue was swollen, coated white, and the lips were dry. Peristalsis was completely absent and obstinate constipation was present. A subnormal temperature, a weak pulse, and slow respiration of the Cheyne-Stokes character indicated approaching death which usually was preceded by prostration and finally concluded in coma. A characteristic diagnostic aid was a pronounced odor on the breath and in the urine." (Philip D. Jordan:"Milksickness in Kentucky and the Western Country", The Filson Club History Quarterly, Vol. 19)

The white snakeroot as the causative agent was first suspected in 1838: "On October 1, 1838, John Rowe, a farmer of Fayette County, had announced publicly that the white snakeroot was the plant which gave cattle the trembles and humans the milksickness." In 1917, a pathologist of the Bureau of Animal Industry had isolated the active poison in the white snakeroot and given it the name of "tremetol." (ibid.)

Jordan's article also contained an illustrative example that after consumption of sufficient amount of tremetol severe, often fatal poisoning is inevitable:
"In November, 1838, a family of six persons, traveling westward, put up at a house a few miles east of Terre Haute, Indiana. At breakfast they drank milk and immediately departed on their journey. By the time they reached Illinois, five or six hours later, they were all taken ill and died, every one of them, in from two to six days."

By now I found no indication that Abraham, Sarah or Thomas Lincoln, Dennis or Sophia Hanks, Peter Brooner or any of the Brooners' sons, Henry and Allen, were even slightly affected by the disease. Particularly strange appears that in none of the three families any of the children was affected although milk was usually first of all given to the children.

To summarize:

The initial question was: "Why did others in the Lincoln (I add: and the Brooner) family not get the milk-sickness?"
These are the possible answers (of which I can think):
- Only Nancy Hanks, Thomas and Betsy Sparrow, and Mrs. Brooner drank milk, all the other members of the families didn't drink (any?) milk.
- Nancy Hanks, the Sparrows, and Mrs. Brooner drank milk from different cows than the others.
- The disease from which Nancy, the Sparrows, and Mrs. Broomer died wasn't the "milk-sickness".

In order to find an (your own!) answer, these are the background facts and thoughts to take into consideration:
- By now there exists obviously no indication that Abraham, Sarah or Thomas Lincoln, Dennis or Sophia Hanks, Peter Brooner or any of the Brooners' sons, Henry and Allen, were even slightly affected by the disease.
- If Nancy Hanks, the Sparrows, and Mrs. Brooner died of tremetol poisoning from drinking contaminated milk, anyone else drinking the same milk would have been seriously ill and probably have died, too.
- Children, due to less body weight, would even have been affected more severely (when drinking a similar amount).
- If an eyewitness' description of Nancy's or Mrs. Brooner's symptoms exists, I haven't found it yet. I'm sure scholars would frequently have quoted it. All descriptions I know are just assumptions (like the "Burlingame example" I gave in post #29). Here's another example from Jordan's "The death of Nancy Hanks" (Indiana Magazine of History 40 ): "If she followed the pathological pattern"..."Had her pulse been taken it probably would have been irregular"..."Not long after that she must have slipped into complete coma" and so on.
- The "closest" account describing the symptoms of the disease in the area at the respective time seems to be the one of Herndon's physician. The specific fruity odor of the breath, muscular trembles or thirst are not mentioned. The other symptoms are less specific and can occur with other diseases as well. Milk-sickness was most likely not the only occurring disease. It is also possible that milk sickness was the first diagnosis that came into people's mind when similar symptoms occured because it was such a serious and widespread threat in those times (but surely not the only occurring disease).
- All statements I checked saying Little Pigeon Creek was affected by milk-sickness in 1818 turned out just to state assumptions or can be traced back to Herndon.

So far, I haven't yet found any definite evidence, neither for nor against tremetol poisoning (milk-sickness) as the cause of Nancy Hank's death. Mr. Steers said David Donald concluded she died of "milk-sickness" because everybody else said so. And he well worded: "You have symptoms, descriptions, secondary sources, and scientific knowledge. Draw your own conclusions." Allow me to add:...why Abraham Lincoln - thanks God - did not suffer and die from milk-sickness in Indiana in 1818.

(PS: Tad Lincoln would have loved to be the sorcerer's apprentice:
http://germanstories.vcu.edu/goethe/zauber_dual.html )