From 1809 to 1927, this strange disease killed thousands of settlers and farmers in the Midwest—including Abraham Lincoln’s mother. https://t.co/GODTnGUwJg
— Smithsonian Magazine (@SmithsonianMag) June 20, 2023
When pioneers began settling in the Unites States midwest, they encountered a deadly illness that was eventually dubbed “milk sickness.” It could kill a person within days. Calves died from it, and milk cows suffered as well, so the connection with drinking milk lent the illness its name. But no one knew what caused it, until Doctor Anna put her efforts into finding the cause.
Anna Pierce Bixby saw a need in her new Illinois community, and went to Philadelphia to be trained in nursing, midwifery, and dentistry, and returned to Rock Creek, Illinois, as the only medical practitioner for miles around. Besides delivering babies and pulling teeth, she searched and found the cause of milk sickness, with the aid of a Native American woman whose identity has been lost. But while cases of milk sickness waned in southern Illinois due to Bixby’s efforts, it continued elsewhere because faraway doctors and officials didn’t put much stock in what a frontier midwife had to say. Time and experience proved Bixby correct, yet even today she is more known for a local legend of buried treasure than for her public health work. Read how Doctor Anna fought milk sickness at Smithsonian. -via Damn Interesting
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Source: neatorama