I heard a story the other day about how researchers have discovered more information about where the 1804-1805 expedition led by Meriweather Lewis and William Clark actually traveled, and they used an interesting method to discover their trails through the newly acquired lands of the Louisiana Purchase.
Those travelers in the expedition ate a lot of meat—like a stop-you-up-for-days amount—and they had little access to fiber-rich foods to keep everything moving smoothly. They predicted this would be a problem, so before they set out, Dr. Benjamin Rush gave them a supply of Dr. Rush’s Bilious Pills, also known as Rush’s Thunderclappers. According to an article I read on the website for Popular Science, “These were compounded tablets about the size of a raisin, composed of powerful laxative ingredients. The main ingredient of the Thunderclappers was calomel, or mercury chloride.”
Though Dr. Rush was no doubt a smart man—and, fun fact, a signer of the Declaration of Independence—he wasn’t aware of the deadly side effects of ingesting mercury or the fact that the basic chemical element doesn’t break down or decompose. These laxatives worked so efficiently for Lewis, Clark, and their team because their bodies recognized the harmful substance and got rid of it, along with whatever else was in their colons. As gross as that may sound, traces of mercury remain in the latrines they made along the route, leaving a connect-the-dot for historians more than 200 years later.
I love a good mystery with a detective following clues that add up to a logical conclusion. At the beginning of the story, there are too many suspects and too many motives. As the reader, you start to form a hypothesis as you move through the narrative, but it usually takes a breakthrough piece of evidence to make it all clear. In fiction, a set of footprints or fingerprints start you down one path, but they are usually a red herring, something to throw us off the scent of the truth.
It can be a frustrating and helpless feeling when you realize you’re missing crucial information. Those researchers had journals and other documents from Lewis and Clark, but this was a trip of more than 4,000 miles stretching from St. Louis to the Pacific Ocean. Finding their precise route seemed unlikely. Then someone remembered about Rush’s Thunderclappers, and the search for mercury began.
In Deuteronomy 29, we read Moses’ sermon to the people as he encouraged them to make a covenant with the Lord. He reminded them of all the amazing things they witnessed. “Your eyes have seen all that the Lord did in Egypt to Pharaoh…With your own eyes you saw those great trials, those signs and great wonders. But to this day the Lord has not given you a mind that understands or eyes that see or ears that hear.” He went on to say that during their 40 years in the wilderness, their clothes and shoes didn’t wear out. God fed them and cared for them. These were inexplicable miracles.
God was dropping breadcrumbs and leaving clues about who He is and what He’s capable of doing for them, but to know it all completely was just too much for them to comprehend. At the end of the chapter, Moses told the people, “The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may follow all the words of this law.”
We can never, ever, ever know the mind of God. It’s beyond us. But our good Father still shows Himself to us every day, and we can trust Him with the release of information, even when we think it’s not enough and we should know more. He gives us enough clues to lead us to Him, so we can have a relationship with the Almighty Creator. What a great inheritance to pass on to future generations!
Comments