There is some debate as to what was the cause of Nancy Lincoln’s death – possibly tuberculosis or cancer but the general consensus is that she was a victim of milk sickness, which claimed thousands of lives in the nineteenth century. Although the actual cause can’t be pinpointed, one fact about Nancy’s death is well documented: her nine-year-old son, Abraham, the future president of the United States, helped his father build the woman’s coffin. Milk sickness perplexed medical professionals for years, until it was finally discovered that the cause was tremetol, a highly toxic alcohol, which made its way into a cow’s milk after the animal had grazed on white snakeroot. This plant is a nondescript, workaday herb that is hardly an aesthetic contribution to any garden, and accordingly Billy Haven didn’t enjoy the plant as a subject to sketch. But he loved its toxic properties. When ingested, tremetol causes the victim to suffer excruciating abdominal pain, intense nausea and thirst, uncontrollable tremors and explosive vomiting.
