Talk:Mary Butters

Historic terms and context needs explaining
Historic terms like "bewitched" and "sweet milk" might need a bit more explanation. While it is fairly clear to me that a "bewitched cow" probably means that the cow was infected with some sort of animal disease, or the milk had become contaminated in some way; simply using the term directly from historic sources without giving a more modern explanation for the phenomenon described makes this article seem to be an authoritative article about superstition and witchcraft. The article nees to explain that at the time people had such superstitious beliefs because they didn't know about germ theory, as research about pathogens in raw milk was only conducted by Louis Pasteur's many years after these events occurred. Some sort of general summary about dairy practices of the time and how milk could become contaminated, and explain the phenomenon described, would be beneficial to this article. In other words, cite more recent scientific research gives insights into these historic events that were previously described as "bewitching".

For example: Being unable to churn butter from milk suggests a low fat content, which could be the result of inadequate cow nutrition, the cow consuming certain plants, the time of year, duration of lactation or an animal disease. The vomiting could indicate toxic milk from an inappropriate cow diet or contamination of the milk or the milking equipment was not clean. While the unconsciousness and suffocation could simply be due to carbon monoxide poisoning in an un-ventilated house. (There are modern examples of this happening with charcoal (BBQ) fires in enclosed sleeping spaces.)

The term "sweet milk" also needs to be explained, as I believe it is now known as raw milk. Whether this was taken fresh from the cow, or not, is unclear. Also, how milk and iron nails turns into a '"sulphurous concoction" is also puzzling and more evidence from the inquest needs to be included in the article to explain how we get from one to the other. Also, this could explain what might have been happening, given our current body of knowledge. - Cameron Dewe (talk) 07:38, 27 June 2021 (UTC)