The Blue People of Troublesome Creek, Kentucky

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I heard about these people today and found it fascinating! Genealogy sites provide this story:

Not myth or legend; The Blue People of Kentucky were an isolated enclave of Appalachian people who lived with an embarrassing skin discoloration until a young hematologist took notice and found a solution.  As the story goes, Martin Fugate, a French orphan, settled on the banks of eastern Kentucky's Troublesome Creek around 1820 to claim a land grant.  He married a red-haired American named Elizabeth Smith with a very pale complexion.  Little did they know that their union would create shades of blue people!

Generations later, a descendant of Martin Fugate, Benjy Stacy, would be born "blue".  '"He was almost purple,"' his father, Alva Stacy, recalls."   Benjy was born in a maternity ward near Hazard, Kentucky and was rushed by ambulance to a medical clinic in Lexington to find help for his blue problem.  Days of testing provided no answers; but then Benjy's grandmother told the doctor a story about the "blue" Fugates.  Incredibly, Benjy had inherited a gene dating back over 162 years!  Thankfully, Benjy lost his blue shade after a few weeks and the only lingering effects were blue fingernails and lips when he was cold or angry.  
In the early 1960's, this blue malady caught the attention of Madison Cawein, an inquisitive hematologist from the University of Kentucky.  Curiosity drove him to Hazard where he was introduced to a nurse, Ruth Pendergrass, who had met a "dark blue" woman.  She was one of the "blue" Combses who lived up on Ball Creek and was a sister to one of the Fugate women; her brother, Luke, was also blue.  The search for blue people ensued.  Patrick and Rachel Ritchie, who lived in Hardburly, were also blue.  Cawein eventually found a small population of people in the back woods of Appalachia, many with a blue skin disorder.   The afflicted were embarrassed about their condition and adamant about talking to Cawein.  Eventually, Cawein gained their trust and began taking blood samples. Tests for abnormal hemoglobin were negative.  Then he began to construct the family genealogy and traced their roots back to Martin and Elizabeth Fugate.

Cawein was determined to find a cause and possibly a solution to help this small group of isolated Appalachian people.  In his research, he found a 1960 article by E. M. Scott that was reported in the Journal of Clinical Investigation.  Scott's research had found hereditary methemoglobinemia among Alaskan Eskimos and Indians caused by an absence of the enzyme diaphorase from their red blood cells.  Methemoglobinemia is a rare hereditary blood disorder that results from excess levels of methomoglobin (metHb)  in the blood.  "Methomoglobin is an oxidized form of hemoglobin that has a decreased affinity for oxygen, resulting in a reduced ability to release oxygen to tissues."   This results in brown blood giving Caucasian patients a bluish hue to their skin.



The blood disorder is inherited as a simple recessive trait - meaning that to get the disorder, a person would have to inherit two genes, one from each parent.  One could inherit the gene, not get the blood disorder, but pass the gene on to a child.  The gene would most likely appear in an inbred line. Martin Fugate carried the recessive gene and the odds that he could have married a woman with the same recessive gene were overwhelming - but that is exactly what happened.    
Fortunately, Cawein was able to find an antidote for the blood disorder - methylene blue which acted as an electron donor.   The antidote worked quickly but patients were required to take daily doses as it passed quickly through the urine.  At last they were free of their "blue" shade and were no longer embarrassed.

Cawein, in researching the family lines in Perry County, Kentucky and with the help of Fugate Family Bibles, found in fact, that the Fugates had married Fugates, had married first cousins, and had intermarried with families whose surnames were: Combs, Smith, Ritchie, and Stacy.  They lived in isolation and married the girl next door, even if they had the same last name, and consequently passed the gene on to many generations.  Martin and Elizabeth had seven children, four being born blue; Zachariah, who was blue, married his mother's sister.  Written family records do not indicate Martin's skin color, but family legend says he was blue.  Eventually, the recessive gene began to disappear once coal mining and the railroad opened the community to outsiders.  This small enclave was no longer isolated and they began to disperse and marry outside of their little clan diminishing the effect of the "blue" gene.

In online research, there was no mention made of "blue" people as recorded in the genealogy book, The Fugate Family of Russell County Virginia, published in 1986, but it has been confirmed in the Fugate discussions on the Genforum.  It is almost certain that Martin was a descendant of the Fugate family of Russell County, Virginia and probably of French origin.   It is documented that Fugates were born in the colonies in the mid 1600's but the original progenitor has not been confirmed.  Different spellings of the surname sometimes include "Fugett" and "Fugitt".  Mary (Dawley) Fugate, who answers quite a few queries and also helped compile the genealogy book, indicates that the siblings of Martin Fugate were not blue but he must have been a carrier.  She also states that the union of Martin and Elizabeth were probably not the originators of the gene as their marriage took place too late.  There was a Zachariah Fugate who was married to a Mary Smith; both carried the gene which resulted in blue children.  Mary Fugate said that the gene is very dominant in the Smith line but there is still no concrete answers as to what couple started the shades of blue people.


You can read about the condition that causes these unique folks to be blue HERE

Exploded Skull

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A Beauchene Skull, also known as an exploded skull, is a disarticulated human skull that has been carefully reassembled on a stand with jointed, movable parts that allow for the opening and studying of the skull as a whole or each piece individually.

Claude Beauchene the mid-1800s French anatomist  developed this method to display the anatomy of the head. Beauchene would meticulously clean a skull, separate its bones, and mount them on a stand designed to exhibit them at once individually and in context.

The concept of the exploded skull was first introduced byLeonardo da Vinci, seen in his anatomical drawings.

Oddities in Medicine

Interested in arcane medical studies and anatomical anomalies? HERE is a blog you might enjoy!

The Plague Doctor

A plague doctor's duties were often limited to visiting victims to verify whether they had been afflicted or not. Surviving records of contracts drawn up between cities and plague doctors often gave the plague doctor enormous latitude and heavy financial compensation, given the risk of death involved for the plague doctor himself. Most plague doctors were essentially volunteers, as qualified doctors had (usually) already fled, knowing they could do nothing for those affected.
Considered an early form of hazmat suit, a plague doctor's clothing consisted of:
A wide-brimmed black hat worn close to the head. At the time, a wide-brimmed black hat would have been identified a person as a doctor, much the same as how nowadays a hat may identify chefs, soldiers, and workers. The wide-brimmed hat may have also been used as partial shielding from infection.
A primitive gas mask in the shape of a bird's beak. A common belief at the time was that the plague was spread by birds. There may have been a belief that by dressing in a bird-like mask, the wearer could draw the plague away from the patient and onto the garment the plague doctor wore. The mask also included red glass eyepieces, which were thought to make the wearer impervious to evil. The beak of the mask was often filled with strongly aromatic herbs and spices to overpower the miasmas or "bad air" which was also thought to carry the plague. At the very least, it may have served a dual purpose of dulling the smell of unburied corpses, sputum, and ruptured bouboules in plague victims.
A long, black overcoat. The overcoat worn by the plague doctor was tucked in behind the beak mask at the neckline to minimize skin exposure. It extended to the feet, and was often coated head to toe in suet or wax. A coating of suet may have been used with the thought that the plague could be drawn away from the flesh of the infected victim and either trapped by the suet, or repelled by the wax. The coating of wax likely served as protection against respiratory droplet contamination, but it was not known at the time if coughing carried the plague. It was likely that the overcoat was waxed to simply prevent sputum or other bodily fluids from clinging to it.
A wooden cane. The cane was used to both direct family members to move the patient, other individuals nearby, and possibly to examine the patient with directly.
Leather breeches. Similar to waders worn by fishermen, leather breeches were worn beneath the cloak to protect the legs and groin from infection. Since the plague often tended to manifest itself first in the lymph nodes, particular attention was paid to protecting the armpits, neck, and groin. It is not known how often or widespread plague doctors were, or how effective they were in treatment of the disease. It's likely that while offering some protection to the wearer, they may have actually contributed more to the spreading of the disease than its treatment, in that the plague doctor unknowingly served as a vector for infected fleas to move from host to host.

National Library of Medicine

These are just a few of the images that can be seen at The National Library of Medicine. You can visit the site HERE

Edward Hull~ Watercolourist

Edward Hull (1823 – 1906), a well-known illustrator and watercolour painter, exhibited at the Royal Academy in London.
Born in Keysoe in Bedfordshire, England, the second son of a farmer, he painted many watercolours but was mainly known as a book illustrator. He was employed for many years up to 1861 by The Illustrated Times the best-known publication in London, and was an illustrator for several books such as Stratford on Avon by Sidney Lee (published around 1890) and The Laureate's Country (a book on Alfred Tennyson) by Alfred J. Church, published around the same time.
Edward Hull symbolises the spirit of illustration in the 19th Century. The great illustrators such a Phiz (who illustrated many of Dickens's books) are well known. Edward Hull represents the many who plied their trade in periodicals and books before the advent of photography in the early 20th Century.
Edward Hull was born in Keysoe, Bedfordshire, but lived most of his life in London. He travelled widely in England as his paintings and illustrations show. He married and had two daughters and three granddaughters. He died on 3 February, 1906 and is buried in St Peters Church in Sharnbrook in Bedfordshire.

The Art of Dissection

The Above images can be seen in the book Dissection: Photographs of a Rite of Passage in American Medicine 1880–1930, by John Harley Warner and James M. Edmonson.