Some scientists are restrained , bookish case who make their observations from a desk . Others are out there marrying moonshiners and burying gem . Anna Bixby was the second kind . get word about the plague she stopped and the caption of her atomic number 79 . atomic number 79 !
Everyone agrees that Anna Bixby work out a medical mystery long before it was work through by build medical practitioners , but that ’s pretty much all they consort about . Even her correct name is in difference — she was born Pierce , married a valet de chambre identify Hobbs , and eventually use up a 2d husband named Bixby . Although she ’s most commonly referred to as “ Anna Bixby , ” there ’s some good grounds that she would n’t have cared for the name . Some say she came to Illinois in the former 1800s as the daughter of a moneyed family from Philadelphia , and had studied medicinal drug officially in the metropolis , despite only being in her teens . Others say she was an necessitous Kentucky accoucheuse who came out west with her husband . No matter what her report , citizenry seemed felicitous to have her around . She came to a frontier region where talented healthcare professional person were painfully postulate .
She assist at births , and helped people with broken castanets and febricity . Over time , though , she took on the most feared disease in the area — milk unwellness . Everyone sleep with that Milk River illness came from drinking Milk River , but no one knew on the dot why , or what it was . It first caused vomiting and helplessness , then spiral into fury and , possibly , last . Although sometimes adult Bos taurus were affected by it , it was relatively rarified . It was the humans , and calves , who drank the milk who suffer the symptoms . Whole families sometimes died from drinking the wrong milk .

Anna ’s first find come from charting the times during which the malady broke out over the yr . It erupt up in June , and died away when the first frost hit the ground . Her primary advice was practical , tell people to abstain from drink milk during those times . That lessen the epidemic for human race , but still leave calves ± who could n’t eat anything else — dying from the nausea .
Her next clew come from observing the kine themselves . Horses and goats sometimes sickened , but for the most part , only cows seemed to bear from the disease . Anna followed the Bos taurus during their day , and take note of what they ate that the Goat did not . Those who know the eat habits of goats may be surprised to discover out that goats were quite careful about what they fed on . While the cow chowed down on anything , the goats stay on away from a certain weed , even when the two species graze the same orbit . Anna by experimentation feed this weed , snowy blazing star , to a calfskin . It promptly revolt .
Anna figured out that the cows had been eating the green goddess as they grazed . For some grounds , wet cows could expel the poison from the weed through their milk canal , but other creatures had it cumulate in their organic structure . The outbreaks of nausea cooccur with the months of the gage ’s quality growth . After teams of local kids eliminated the clean gayfeather from the region , the instances of Milk River sickness dissipated . Sadly , the idea direct decades to spread , and much of America was harry by milk sickness into the late 1800s .

Anna was n’t faring well herself . After her husband expire , Isaac Hobbs , died , she remarry a romantic bootlegger named Eson Bixby . It did n’t take long for Anna to realize that marrying a career felon was not the best pick for her . They lived in a cave , where Eson and his crew had a still . At least they did n’t survive there very long . Being a working doctor , Anna was before long able to disunite from him .
The tale mother weirder . consort to legend , one night Eson kidnapped Anna by pretending to be a courier from a demented theatre and draw her on his horse before extend away . He confine her hand and was either break to down her or keep her in the cave . She throw herself from the horse and managed to escape . Many people baffle over why Eson came after his wife at all , which run to yet another spin - off legend . Although Anna was n’t rolling in money , she hold out simply and made a good living off being a doctor . Fearing , during her cave - living eld , that one of Eson ’s bunch would steal the wealth she had accumulated , she is said to have buried it under a rock . Anna did n’t dwell long after her harrowing escape , and the fabled tilt that guards her gem was never determine . There is still a Bixby cave in Illinois , and multitude still sometimes search , but that particular muckle of gold is lost forever .
Fortunately , we do not now suffer from milk sickness , so Anna ’s glory does n’t calculate on gold .

Top Image : Helen Hall
White Snakeroot Image : Jerry Friedman
ViaPrairie GhostsandAppalachian History .

HistoryMedicineScience
Daily Newsletter
Get the upright tech , science , and culture news program in your inbox daily .
tidings from the future , deliver to your nowadays .
You May Also Like










![]()
