Dodgeville chronicle. [volume] (Dodgeville, Wis.) 1862-current, 1866-03-08

course, are first attacked, but the trichine
very soon find their way to those of the
chest and anterior portion of the neck, and
by degrees reach the muscles of the back
and extremities.
The track Of the trichina may be seen as
indicated in the last engraving by the white
line Or band, which was once a striped
muscular fibre, but which is now only ode
tritus," or digested muscular tissue, in
which the full-grown larva may be seen
celebrating its she'll, preparatory to enter
ing the pupa or quiescent state. In this
stony prison house the self-immured trichi-
ma remains, without doubt, so long as the
animal into whose body it has found its
way continues to live, which may be de-
cades of years. In this state they are sex
less, and the further propagation of the
species seems to depend solely upon the ac-
cidental circumstance of this parasite find
ing its way into the stomach of some living
animal, where it may develop its sexual
characteristics, and multiply its species
In the transformations OF this parasitic
animal may be seen many analogies to in
sect life. The period Of wandering and
feeding is the larva" stage. The encap-
suled trichina is the 'spupa" or g chrys-
ais" In which state it remains until re-
leased in the manner already described
The muscles upon which this animal has fed
become useless in proportion to the number
Of ultimate fbres which are destroyed.
When it is remembered that single ounce
of flesh may contain trichina enough to pro-
duce in eight days 100000 young, it is not
surprising that the entire substance Of the
abdominal muscles should be sometimes
found consumed.
| The symptoms progress, and the terrible
! fatality of the disease is well exemplifed in
the history of the Hettstadt tragedy, which
is taken from a British medical journal:
I" This village is situated near the Hartz
mountains, in Germany. An annual festi-
val was celebrated there some two years
since, and 103 persons, sat down to a din
ner. the third course consisting of rosie
aourste and gemUse Sausage and vegetables.
The sausage had been prepared beforehand
for this special occasion. The steward who
had been commissioned to furnish the pig
for this purpose, gave the butcher lean,
ill conditioned one, instead of the thrifty
one which had been bargained for. The
| day after the festival, several persons who
had participated in the dinner were attack
ed with pain and irritation of the intestines,
with loss of appetite, fever and great pros
tration The number increased from day
/ to day, and an epidemic of typhus or septic
! fever was apprehended, as the symptoms
| began to assume that character. However,
| as the disease progressed, the symptoms as
sumed different type, and to diarrhea,
dysentery and fever, were added peritin-
it is, circumscribed pneumonia and paralysis
of the abdominal and intercostal muscles
with those Of the neck. Then the typhus
theory was abandoned, and some unknown
poison was assumed to be at the bottom of
it. Under this conviction, every article of
food and material used in connection with
the dinner was rightly examined. By this
time the trichin@ had reached the muscles
of the calf of the leg in some Of the victims,
and Zenker's description of the disease was
called to mind. The remnants of the sau-
sage were examined, and found to be liter
ally swarming' with trichin@. Portions
of muscle from the calf of the leg of the af
fected ones were examined under the micro
scope, and were found literally full of free
trichina. These were the progeny Of the
encapsuled ones which had escaped the
smoking and frying process to which the
sausage had been subjected.
E'No less than SO of the aforementioned
number died within a few weeks, and the
surviving 20 at last accounts were still ling
ering in agony, and apprehensive Of SINH
lar fate.
This awful catastrophe at Hettstadt
awak sympathy and fear throug hout all
Germany, and many eminent medical men
were consulted in the interest of the suffer-
ers, but none could bring relief or cure.
With All obstinacy unsurpassed by any other
disease, trichinasis surely carried its victims
to TIE grave.
Many vermifages were employed with
the hope of removing the parasites still in
the alimentary canal Picric acid was en-
ployed, until its effects seemed as danger
Gus as the disease itself An examination
of the bodies after death showed the trlch-
ine to have been unaffected by any of the
remedies employed. The terrible conviction
now fastened itself upon the minds of all
who witnessed these sscenes that person
afflicted with this parasite was doomed to
die the slow death of exhaustion from nerv-
Gus irritation, fever and paralysis Of all the
voluntary muscles"
Since the Hettstadt tragedy, the public
mind in Germany has had little rest from
apprehension of this terrible scourge. A
wholesale poisoning soon after occurred in
Offenbach, a manufacturing town in Hesse-
Darmstadt Upwards of 20 persons were
poisoned by eating trichinous pork, several
of whom have died. But Hettstadt, with its
tragedy and appalling concomitants, is
eclipsed by the late visitation at Hedersle-
ben, another German village, where 800 in
habitants partook of trichinous pork and
at this writing full 100 are in their graves.
The butcher slaughtered four pigs, which
were sold to the villagers. The butcher
and his wife, partaking of the same meat
became themselves the earliest victims. A
very injudicious custom seems to have OBJ
tanned in this village, as well as in many
other parts of Germany, namely: that Of
eating pork in raw state, cut fine and
spread upon bread. Although the scenes
at Hettstadt were still fresh in the public
mind, and the very uniform character which
the symptoms always present was well I'M
derstood by the medical profession gener-
ally, yet the people, through fear and igno
rance, fed from what they believed visit
alton of cholera. The consequences car
ca lily be imagined. Many were seized with
the disease, and died on the highways The
irritation Of the stomach, vomiting and di
arrhea, might well be taken for the pre-
monitory symptoms of the above disease By
the mass OF the people Indeed, the villag,
doctor was himself mised, as he treated tn,
sufferers with opium and astringents. Thi
treatment was evidently intended to contro
the diarrh9a but it proved fatal to tn,
patients, by combining the parasites in tn,
stomach and alimentary canal until they
had an oportunity to pierce through tn,
walls. Ont of % persons treated in thi
!, manner, n died. One very remarkable
fact has been noted in connection with th'
i. L IL