The Abilene reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1883-1888, 1884-07-03
THE PIONEERS ENEMY.

THE PIONEERS ENEMY.
Amidst perils and priyations, will
blazed roads leading to log cabins, the
early settlers laid the permanent founda
ton for the grandeur and glory of oul
present Civilizations civilization witt
its magnificent churches, its splendid
school buildings, its palatial, gas-lighteC
dwellings, its elegant, easy coaches or
-, cur railroads., and peerless floating
palaces on our waters, itsmacadamized
drives, its paved cities, its telegraph
- and telephone. its music of machinery
and its electric light to flash out blaze
of glory over science, art and literature,
and all the monuments of human
grandeur of which we are SO often wont
TO boast.
Deep in the shaded reeesses of the
almost unlimited forests and along the
lumber-lined streams that meander
through the vast prairies of the West,
there lurked an undiscovered poison,
alike fatal to man and beast. An in
tereSting and most significant fact in
relation to the locality and habitat of
this deadly poison, is that it occurred
only in places where the soil was still in
its virgin state. and that it disappeared
Immediately after the cultivation of the
soil. 1t appeared unable to perpetuate
its aggressive and dangerous life where
the sunlight of heaven was permitted
to shine. Therefore, through the stall
wart energy and enterprise of the
woodman and his ak, the dark. gloomy
and infected forests, which it claimed
as its home. have been transformed into
waving fields and cheerful pastures,
and this pestilential poison, whatever it
may have been, has forever taken its
flight and its dangers are no longer felt
or feared.
The extensive wild range in the new
country was exceedingly rich in cane
brakes in winter and the wild pea-vine
in summer, and the pioneer farmers
scsttle grew fine and fat, and made ex-
cellent beef without other food. These
early settlers, not having ample
,paSturage for their stock, were COM
PEELED to drive them to the abundant
wild range, from which, in many in
stances, no part of the animal except
the hide ever found its way back to the
settlement of the owner. Many of the
animals fell victims to the lurking
poison and died of the disease it pro-
duced, which disease in animals was
called ''trembleS," the name being de-
rived from the peculiar symptoms of
produced in the animal after the poison
had found its way into the system.
The disease produced by this poison
occurred originally in the herbivora-
the OK, horse sheep, etc.-but was
transmitted by the carniyerous animals
and birds which had fed upon the flesh
of other animals dead from the disease,
as the dog and the yulture. The flesh
and milk of diseased animals were
capable, when eaten, of imparting the
disease TO others; the COW, through her
milk poisoned her calf and poisoned
the people who drank the milk or ate
OF the butter made from the milk.
When the poison had once been intro
=duced into the system it had the prop
erty of self-propagation and of impart-
ing the same intensely poisonous prop
critics from one animal to another, and
was capable of perpetuating the disease
in continuous chain of animals as one
should eat the flesh of another; thus,
each pound of the flesh of q dog which
had been poisoned by a pound of the
flesh of the COW would poison the vul-
ture, and so through long chain of
animals, the last pound of flesh par
taken of being as fatally poisonous as
that taken from the, first affected
animal. There is no known mineral or
vegetable principle which, when taken
into the system, can thus multiply itself
and perpetuate its poisonous principle.
Its origin can be accounted for only
on the germ theory of disease.
The disease in man derived its name
from the well-eStablished fact that it
was produced by eating the flesh of
milk, butter or cheese made from the
milk of cows or other animals which
had become poisoned in consequence
of frequenting certain limited ranges
or uncultivats1 pastures. 1t was called
-'milk sickness" aud its Seguelgl de-
nominated ''tires
Through its annual destruction of
large numbers of domestic animals and
its fatality. among the early settlers, it
was one of the most prominent ene-
mics to the prosperity of the pioneers.
:. In the beginning the symptoms were
not well marked. so that the milk or
flesh of really diseased animals might
be inadvertently eaten under the sup
position that the animal was in good
health. Their most attractive and
healthy-looking condition, even their
extreme fatneSs. did not give complete
assurance of their exemption from the |
disease. In this state they were often
found to be sick, suffering from loss, of
appetite and energy, with theireyes red |
and watery. and to stagger, tremble,
fall down in commissions and die. |
Sheep when seized with a paroxysm of
the ''trembles" would struggle as If
trying to free themselves from the |
grasp of some terrible enemy, and
would soon surrender and fall down,
uttering the most plaintive bleating,
as If suffering intensely painful distress.
The farmers had test for the health |
fuiness of beef cattle just off the wild
range; it may be designated as the |
fatigue" test. | have often seen the
test applied. 1t consisted in placing
the animals in field or lot, and BOYS,
with coats and hats off, were directed
to chase them around and urge them to |
ffheir greatest speed. If, after long
Z chase, the cattle did not evince signs of
muscular weakness, stagger, tremble |
and fall down, they where pronounced