In a message dated 3/20/2006 1:18:30 PM Mountain Standard Time, URUDOFSKY@aol.com writes: Marasmus: you are quite right that the treatment was goat milk. It is a form of severe protein deficiency like Kwashiokor in Africa. My grandfather Dr. med. Franz Rudofsky was a firm believer in the use of goat milk for this condition. Severe malnutrition of the lactating mothers and hence the babies was an rampant in Bohemia at the turn of the 18/19 turn of the century, particularly west of Bischofteinitz. Ulrich Rudofsky --------------- About causes of severe malnutrition in lactating mothers in the early 19th century: During that period, Napoleon was busy conquering Europe.. He invaded Bohemia and defeated the Austro-Russian allies at Austerlitz (4 miles east of Brno in CR) in December 1805. The battle was followed by the Peace of Pressburg on Dec. 26, 1806 that ended the Holy Roman Empire and gave some Austrian territory to Germany. Napoleon's army usually lived off the land and took what they needed for food when and where they found it. It was also the custom that the loser paid the winner reparations after a war. I suspect that Napoleon collected some of his reparations from Bohemians, taking cash needed to live on during the winter and to purchase seed and get fields in order in the spring. (There is a folketale about the farmers of one village who saved their seed grain from the French by sowing it on snow-covered fields. It sprouted in the spring and they had some crops but the neighboring villages whose seed grain was taken by the French had nothing.) Before 1815 there were six years in a row during which the growing season was cold and wet. Disastrous harvests slowly eroded any surplus that might have existed in Western Europe. In 1815 a huge eruption of Mount Tambora in Indonesia put so much ash and dust into the atmosphere that it is believed to have caused even worse European weather and harvests in 1815 and 1816. Al though Bohemian nobility had begun to encourage farming for surplus, not just for subsistence -- using crop rotation instead of the traditional "3 fields and fallow" method -- there was not enough stored surplus to last. By 1815 there was nothing left. In 1815, after Napoleon was finally defeated at the battle of Waterloo, England lifted her naval blockade of Europe and Austria released up to 250,000 men from her army. Cheap foodstuffs and textiles flooded into Europe, ba nkrupting many fledgling textile mills (that had already put hand-weavers out of business) and beet sugar makers. Unemployment and economic depression followed. Austria released 250,000 men to go back to homes where there was no work, no money, and no food. The famine in Western Europe was severe. One historian (Post) says that 20,000 died in Switzerland, another 20,000 in Baden Wurtemburg, yet another 20,000 in Hungary and even more died of plague and disease caused by malnutrition. The worst years were 1816 and 1817. Bohemian demographics charts give evidence that the famine was fairly severe there, too. The population fell considerably between 1815-1818 and it did not recover to pre 1815 levels for over 30 years per some charts. There was another year or two of dearth around 1830 and yet two more years in 1846-47. That last famine is documented in the Chronicles of Mies (there was some violence and arson caused by the food shortage) and perhaps in the chronicles of other towns and cities in Bohemia. The Chronicles of Mies also says that there was a Cholera epidemic in 1847-49. Any time that you find evidence of famine or epidemic in a history you may also find that your ancestral family was affected by those events if you chart the births and deaths of children during the bad years. In my case I found that among 6 families living in Bohemia 1846-47, all of whom had children born before those years, there were only 2 children who survived birth from 1846-1852. More frequent survivals began in 1852. My chart had the years from about 1840 to 1860 across the top and the family surnames and childrens hames under them along the left side. When an event occurred in a given family I put an M (marriage) B (birth) D (death) E (emigrated) A (army service) in the line for the name of the person and under the year in which it happened. The empty area where there were only 2 surviving children over a 6-year period was easy to spot. I have not done enough research to learn if any unknown children were born and died during that time. Most research I have read indicates that a malnourished woman often will not become pregnant and that malnourished mothers my not be able to feed their babies. Goat's milk may have been some of the only milk available during the worst years. I have never heard of goats being butchered for their meat and they are said to be able to survive on forage that no other animals will eat. They were usually the animal the poorest families kept if they could not affford a cow. They may have been the only animals that survived when farmers were forced to butcher other livestock because a family had to have something to eat. The picture painted by this history is a very sad one and some of the worst images are not covered above. The information I gathered about the famine appeared in the CGSI yearbook, "Rocenka", vol. 5, 2002. The article is called, "War, Famine and Economic Depression in the Nineteenth Century". That issue of Rocenka is still available at: http://www.cgsi.org/research.asp?i=8 Karen .