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After inspecting the Grimes madstone in Hutchinson, Kansas,
I was particularly interested in the ledger kept with it. You may remember
from my last essay that a madstone was a stone from the stomach of a deer
applied to the bite of a rabid animal as a cure.
Evidently, judging by handwriting and other internal indications, Jake
Grimes, owner of the madstone, kept a record of everyone who was treated
with his stone for a mad animal bite. Later his daughter either continued
or re-copied a part of this record. Anyway, the surviving ledger lists
cases numbers 230 to 310, covering the years 1898 to 1917.
Here is an example of an entry:
245. Glen Phillips, 12 [age]
May 21, 1907 [date of treatment]
Newton, Kansas [address of patient]
7 hours
Note especially that last line, "7 hours." This was the length
of time that the madstone stuck to the wound, extracting the poison. This
seems fantastic, but according to the record, the stone almost always
stuck for at least three or four hours. The longest time was that of Mary
McVay, 29 years old, from Capron, Oklahoma—16 hours. In only three
cases, says the record, did the stone fail to adhere to the wound.
Most of the people seeking treatment came from with 100 miles or so from
Hutchinson. All but eleven came from within Kansas, and more specifically,
they came from south-central and southwestern Kansas—places like
McPherson, Stafford, Arlington, Lake City, Inman, Greensburg. This indicates
two things, I think. First, knowledge of the stone went around by word
of mouth, and thus it was known within a particular area. Second, there
probably were other madstones available in other places, and so people
would not travel long distances for treatment.
Just one patient came from Texas, from a town whose name I couldn't read.
Nine came from Oklahoma, all from the northwestern part of the state—Alva,
Capron, Woods County. And one, seven-year-old Lambert Graham, came from
New Jersey, but a note next to his name says he was brought in by a "Mrs.
Galvie." I'll bet he was visiting kin in Kansas at the time.
I had the pleasure of meeting one of the listed madstone patients, Mrs.
Sylvia (Carder) Rudd, in Hutchinson. She was patient number 307, on April
3, 1916. The ledger lists her age as three, but she may have been four.
Her father brought her in from the farm, near Arlington, to Hutchinson
for treatment after the farm dog, Ring, bit her on the right calve.
Mrs. Rudd recalls images of the happenings of that day, but obviously,
did not understand all that was going on. She knows that Ring was acting
suspiciously, growling at a neighbor, and when she said, "Ring, don't
do that," and swung a stick at him, he bit her. She recalls that
the neighbors also at the time killed a skunk that they believed to be
rabid. And she remembers the stone being applied by Grimes, whom she took
to be a doctor, and the stone being soaked in a dish of milk. She does
not recall that the treatment hurt at all.
Was Ring the dog really rabid? How did the parents decide to seek treatment
from a madstone, instead of from a doctor? Those are good questions, but
the answers are beyond recollection.
I have never heard of a madstone in North Dakota or on the northern plains.
Given the pervasiveness of their use in North America, however, I know
they must be out there. Someone around here is keeping an heirloom madstone
like the Grimes stone from Hutchinson. I would love to hear about it.
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