The "milk-sick" came to the Lincoln family

[Ed Steers]

(09-23-2013 08:31 AM)Eva Elisabeth Wrote:  Roger, thanks for posting the link to Mr. Steers post. I didn't read it before and also didn't pay much attention on that Nancy was ill for 7 days, but now I find this topic very interesting and did some research. This I found in a veterinarian magazine:

"In humans, the disease begins with a day or two of weakness and debility, followed by loss of appetite, abdominal pain and severe, repeated vomiting. Constipation and unquenchable thirst develop, which are accompanied by repeated drinking and then loss of ingested water by vomiting. Muscular tremors commonly are observed. As the disease progresses, the characteristic odor of acetone appears on the breath. In terminal cases, delirium and coma precede death (Kingsbury, 1964). Mortality ranges between 10 and 25% of diagnosed cases. Fatty degeneration of the liver is the most prominent lesion. When death is prevented, recovery is slow and uncertain, with relapses following moderate exertion. Many subjects who recover are incapacitated for several years or are permanently barred from hard physical labor."

I agree on Mr. Steers' statement: "Nancy 'died on the 7th day after she took sick.' That does not sound like death by neurotoxin."

Nancy "died on the 7th day after she took sick." means she suffered for seven days after the onset. I found no information on the period within which death occurs after the onset of the first symptoms, but like Mr. Steers, I would assume that, IF it turns out to be fatal for the affected person and there's no turning point, it would take less than 7 days, like in many cases of lethal mushroom poisonings. E.g. in case of poisoning due to amanitin, the stage of gastrointestinal upset is followed by severe liver damage and failure of other organs (heart, kidneys etc) which lead to death within 1-3 days.
A German pharmaceutical book focussing on medical plants I have says that the toxic effect of tremetol needs enzymatic activation. This is probably the reason for the period of latency. (This book also states that the disease in English speaking counties is also known as "alkali disease", "puking fever" or "trembles", I wasn't aware of that.)

Personally I, by now, too, doubt Nancy Hanks died from tremetol poisoning and also second Mr. Steer's brilliant argument that this would have affected everyone who drank the milk, whereas the onset and course of bacterial infections much more depend on the individual constitution and immune system.

Mr. Steers, I would be interested in what other scientific literature you have on this topic. The available German literature I've skimmed yet doesn't deal a lot with this since it's less relevant.

Dear Eva Elisabeth, I enjoyed your post and especially your conclusion that Nancy Hanks may/probably did not die of trematol poisoning. I became suspicious while working at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryand where I had available to me some of the world's leading chemists, toxicoligists, and clinicians. My own undergraduate training was in comparative pathogenisis (bacterial infections) so I had some understanding od disease not only current, but thoughout history. In studying trematol as a neurologic toxin (both its structure and mode of action) I became skeptical that it was the causitive agent in Nancy's death. This toxin is potent and absolute. It does not effect some and no others. I concluded that the children in both the Lincoln cabin and Sparrow cabin surely drank the same milk that Nancy drank, and most likely in larger quantities, and yet thet were uneffected. While Nancy and the Sparrows died and the children did not, the symptoms were much more like those commonly found with the meat contaminating bacillus known as Brucellosis. Brucillosis was more common a killer than tremetol being more widely spread and more widely consumed. There is no specific research on the subject. Just anecdotal accounts and scientific papers on the two agents - trematol and Brucellosis. One has to read them and using circumstantial eveidence come to their own conclusion. I will say that David Donald, in the first edition of his book "Lincoln" does write that Nancy died from Brucellosis. As no one had ever suggested that before, and because I had come to that conclusion privately, I asked Professor Donald why he came to that conclusion. He said he read it somewhere in a journal article which he could not remember. He said he was obviously wrong and Nancy died of "milk sick." Why? Because everybody else said so. So there you are. You have symptoms, descriptions, secondary sources, and scientific knowledge. Draw your own conclusions. Ed Steers