The Nashville daily union. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1862-1866, 1864-03-11

W. VI. AEtnAhAt
Chaplain 10th Iowa Infantry.
From the Manchester Examiner and Times.l
UnderdOne Pork.

UnderdOne Pork.
To the Editor Of tie Examiner and Times
SR-Having seen in this district a
fatal case Of what / believe was flesh
worm disease, / have been much inter
ested and struck by a very able article
on the subject communicated, without
the authors name to the British Medi-
cal journal for January Is, from which
| extract the following particulars for
the benefit and warning Of this neigh
borhood:
a few months ago there was a fes-
tive celebration at Hettstadt, a small
country town near the Hartz Noun
tains in Germany. Upward of one
hundred persons sat down to an excel
lent dinner and having enjoyed them
selves mare aj01gm, separated and went
to their homes. OF these 100 persons,
most of them in the prime of life, IS
are now in their graves; and the ma
iority of the twenty survivors linger
with a fatal malady; and a few only
walk apparently unscathed among the
living. but in hourly fear ofan outbreak
of the disease which has carried away
such numbers Of their fellow-citizens.
"They had all eaten of a poison at
that festive board, the virulence of
which far surpasses the reported eff
fects of aqua tophana, or Of the more
tangible agents described in toXicolo-
gical textbooks 1t was not a poison
dug out Of the earth, extracted from
plants. or prepared in the laboratory Of
the chemist 1t was not a poison adj
ministered by designs or negligence;
but it was q poison unknown TO all
concerned, and was eaten with the
meat in which it was contained, and Of
which it formed a living constituent
The remnants Of sausage and of pork
employed in the manufacture of the
rostewurst 1.-THE dish which formed the
third course of the dinner) were eX-
amined with the microscope, and found
to be literally swarming with encap-
suled trichin@, or fesh-worms From
the suffering muscles Of several of the
victims small pieces were eXcised, and
under the microscope found charged
with embryonic trichine in all stages
of development 1t could not be
doubted any longer that as many ofthe
l03 as had partaken of the rOstewurst
had been infested with trichinous dis
eases by eating of trichinous pork, the
parasites of which had, at least, in part,
escaped the,eifects of smoking and fry
ing. This awful catastrophe awakened
sympathy and fear throughout the
whole of Germany. Most of the leading
physicians were consulted in the inter
est ofthe sufferers, and some visited the
neighborhood where most of the attiict-
ed patients remained; but none could
bring relief or cure With an obstina-
CIV unsurpassed by any other infec-
tious or parasitic disease, trichiniasis
carried its victims to the grave. If it
be remembered that one ounce of
meat filed with trichin@, may form
the stock from which, in a few days,
three millions of worms may be bred /;
and that these worms will destroy, in
the course of a few weeks, not less than
two millions Of striated muscular fibers,
an idea of the extent of the destruction
produced by these parasites can be
formed Most educated people in Ger
many have in consequence of the
Hettstadt tradegy adopted the law Of
Moses, and avoid pork in any form
The writer Of the valuable article,
from which the above are merely ex-
tracts, concludes this important COM
munication III the following words
AS il would be useful if the medical
profession, as the natural guardian of the
public health, were to put people on their
guard against eating pork in an under
done condition, and otherwise than in
the form of thoroughly boiled or roast
ed meat, we propose TO use the word
heshworm for popularity designating
trchina The word seems 10 express
to some extent, the Horrors of the
disease
There are accounts of the outbreak
of the same disease in other parts of
Germany
The hesh-worms are not killed by
sailing, smoking. or freezing the meat
in which they exist, therefore these
processes must not be trusted to as a
protection from possible poisoning by
eating of such meat Indeed so far
as our present knowledge goes, the
only manner of preparing pork so that
it may be eaten with moderate safety
is to boil or roast thoroughly every
atom Of it. 1t is believed that either
of these processes, if perfectly done,
viii xiii the flesh-worms, should they
already exist in the pork.
flesh-worms undoubtedly exist in a
large number of Irish and other pigs,
and they are believed TO be due in
great part 70 the filthy way in which
these animals are kept
These hesh-wOrms have been found