Anna Pierce Hobbs Bixby | |
|---|---|
| Born | Anna Pierce 1808 or 1812 |
| Died | 1869 or 1873 (aged 61-65) |
| Other names | Anna Bixby, Anna Bigsby, Anna Pierce Hobbs Bigsby, Anna Hobbs |
| Occupation(s) | Midwife, frontier doctor, dentist, herbologist, scientist |
| Spouse(s) | Isaac Hobbs (first husband), Eson Bixby (second husband) |
| Medical career | |
| Research | Milk sickness |
Anna Pierce Hobbs Bixby, sometimes spelled Bigsby, born Anna Pierce (c. 1810 – c. 1870), was a midwife, frontier doctor, dentist, herbologist, and scientist in southern Illinois.[1]
Bixby discovered that white snakeroot (Ageratina altissima) contains a toxin. When cattle consume the plant, their meat and milk become contaminated and cause the sometimes fatal condition of milk sickness. One of the most notable and tragic cases of the "milk sickness" was that of Nancy Hanks Lincoln, the mother of Abraham Lincoln, who died at 34 years old in 1818.
- ^ Bailey, Laurel (1996). "Dr. Anna and the Fight for the Milksick". Illinois History. Archived from the original on 2012-08-07. Retrieved 5 May 2013.
Dr. Anna began to follow the grazing cattle, checking the plants they fed upon. One day while walking with the cattle through the woods, she happened to find an elderly Shawnee Indian medicine woman, who had been left behind by the tribe when they were scattered at the close of the War of 1812. Dr. Anna took the old woman into her home to care for her. After learning about the milk sickness plague and that Dr. Anna was so concerned, the elderly medicine woman took Dr. Anna into the woods and showed her the white snakeroot and told her that this was the plant causing the milk sickness.
Citing
Kelly A. Cichy, Women Meet the Challenge in Southern Illinois History;
Lowell A. Dearinger, "Dr. Anna and the Milksick," Outdoor Illinois (March 1967);
Lowell A. Dearinger, "Free-Fer-Alls and Cornbread," Outdoor Illinois (October 1963);
William D. Snivelyand Louanna Furbee, "Discoverer of the Cause of Milk Sickness," Journal of the American Medical Association (June 1966)."