The Midwest pioneer, his ills, cures, & doctors - University Library ...

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cold sensations which increased until the victim's teeth
chattered in his jaws and he "felt like a harp with a thousand
strings." As the chills increased, the victim shivered
and shook "like a miniature earthquake." After an hour
or so warmth returned, then gradually merged into raging
heat with racking head pains and aching back. The spell
ended with copious sweating and a return to normal.
As a veteran sufferer described it:
"You felt as though you had gone through some sort of
collision, thrashing-machine or jarring-machine, and came
out not killed, but next thing to it. You felt weak, as
though you had run too far after something, and then
didn't catch it. You felt languid, stupid and sore, and was
down in the mouth and heel and partially raveled out.
Your back was out of fix, your head ached and your appetite
crazy. Your eyes had too much white in them, your
ears, especially after taking quinine, had too much roar in
them, and your whole body and soul were entirely woebegone,
disconsolate, sad, poor, and good for nothing. You
didn't think too much of yourself and didn't believe that
other people did, either; and you didn't care. You didn't
quite make up your mind to commit suicide, but sometimes
wished some accident would happen to knock either the
malady or yourself out of existence. You imagined that
even the dogs looked at you with a kind of selfcomplacency.
You thought the sun had a kind of sickly
shine about it.
About this time you came to the conclusion
that you would not accept the whole state of Indiana as a
gift; and if you had the strength and means, you picked
up Hannah and the baby, and your traps, and went back
'yander' to 'Old Virginny,' the 'Jerseys,' Maryland or
Tennsylvany.' "
In 1836 it was said that members of one family in the
Illinois country shook so severely that the workmen were
frightened from their task of shingling the cabin roof.
A Wisconsin pioneer frankly admitted that when he went
to that place he "had a wholesome fear of two things: fever
and ague and rattlesnakes." An early settler in the Michi-