Daily union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1865-1866, 1866-03-25
THE rERrLs OF PORK EATING

to death in any of the buildings destroyed.
THE PERILS OF PORK EATING.
The following article may be new to some
of our readers, Notwithstanding Il has been
pretty extensively re-published in this conn.,
try. We have not examined any speci-
mems of pork with view to detecting this
dangerous parasite, hence we are not pre-
pared 10 offer any very intelligent opinion
on the subject We are prepared to say,
however, that there is an alarming amount
of diseased pork consumed in this country.
Indeed, to find a perfectly healthy hog is the
exception. 1t is well known to butchers that
more than one-half of the hogs slaughtered
have tuberculous livers, and, of course, scro-
fulous matter pervades the entire system,
and we undertake to say that to the extern
siye pork eating habits of our people is due
a very large percentage of scrofula, hepati-
tbs, etc, that is found in this country For
this evil there are two remedies: Either
abandon the use of pork and eat the finer
qualities of flesh, beef mutton, ETC., or i'm
prove the health of your hogs by turning
them upon the clover field, woods, pasture,
and the range-everywhere but in the close
lot or the eight by ten sly. Feed them well,
but abandon the abominable habit of stuff
fng and gornandizing them, now so common.
This is disease-creating process. Put a
hog, chicken, turkey, or OK In close pen,
where it is denied the advantage Of both ex-
ercise and cleanliness, and then stuff all the
corn you can into it and, Of course, it will
fatten. How can it help it. when every par
ticle OF carbon taken into the system must
be stcwesl away there There being no ex-
ercise, there is no elimination, and the filthy
habits of the creature completely close the
pores of the skin so that nought could es-
cape if it would Every issue is thus flied
in short period with fat and debris; that is,
deceased fat.
DIR. Peucher, who has charge of the scien-
tifc department of the AUenir National, a
Paris Journal gives frightful account of the
new plague which is committing such havoc
in Germany. The particulars given by DR..
Poucher are taken from private letter from
DIR. Ka-l Stein, of Frankfort, dated the 9th
ultimo, and are as follows:
/" Edersleben is little town in the enyi-
rons of Magdeberg-one of those little Ger
man towns that seem the abode of peace and
rustic felicity, where no noise is heard save
the merry clink of the glasses of the bier
braueri and the Jolly tones of the drinkers
calling for another glass all around Well,
this little town, 50 smiling and happy, is now
filed with mourning and desolation. For a
whole month past death has reigned there
A fearful death after unexampled sufferings,
and those that are acquainted with the ma
ture of their disease know that they are
being eaten alive by legion of worms,
hardly as thick as human hair, that have
worked their way into the tissue of their
flesh, their muscles, and their nerves. Is
not such fate horrible to dwell upon?'
Con the 9th of last month DIR. Karl Stein,
of Frankfort, wrote to one of our friends that
upward Of one hundred children-for they
appeard TO enjoy an immunity-had been
deprived of their parents. There was hardly
a house in The village that did not number
a victim. At that date upward of three
hundred patients were awaiting death, which
they knew to be inevitable, prey to fearful
sufferings. From seventy to eighty of the
inhabitants, who, at the outset of the epi-
demic, had felt unwell, had taken to fight
from what they considered to be the cholera;
but they had fallen down on the roadside
and died without relief. Their corpses alone
were picked up.
The epidemic" Dr. Poucher proceeds to
say, twas caused by the ravages of the worm
called trichine, whence the epidemic has
received the name of Trichinosis. The
trickine is one of the entozod of the pig, and
it j. capable of being transplanted into and
thriving in the human body. In Germany,
pork flesh, imperfectly cured and smoked,
in the shape of ham and German sausage, is
the main article of food, and from the hui
man stomach, where they penetrate with the
ham and saucisson dear 10 German palates,
the larvae of these entozod pass into the
blood, their size being 80 microscopically
small as to enable thera to penetrate even to
the minutest veins. They lodge in the
nerves, in the muscular and cellular tissues,
and feed upon those parts of the human or
ganization, causing fearful agony and great
constitutional disturbance, which ends in
death. No cure has as yet been discovered,
but the preventive process Is obvious. To
abstain from such preparations Of pork as
are eaten in a semi-crude state, is sure
means of avoiding trichinosis; but to eat
half-smoked saucisson and raw ham, cut in
slices, is as general custom in Germany
as smoking or beer drinking. Hence the
rapid propagation ofthe disease, as simple
slice Of German ham or sausage may contsin
many larvae of millions Of these parasites.
"a very short time ago the Berlin Pork
Butchers Association summoned meeting
of the faculty and professors of the Univer-
sity TO decide on the proper measures to
adopt in order 10 prevent the spread Of tri-
chinosis. The meeting was marked by
curious incident, which has been misreport-
ed by some Of your contemporaries. What
really took place was this: Professor Wir-
chow had just spoken and SET forth the best
means TO prevent the spread Of trichines,
when veterinary surgeon, DIR. Urban, who
was present, loudly protested his disbelief in
all that the professor had stated, and, by
way Of clinching his argument he offered
TO eat any amount OF trichinised pork flesh.
A rather noisy discussion followed, but Pro
feSsor Wirchow put an end 10 It very soon.
He pulled sancisson out Of his pocket. He
then told the meeting he had examined il
through a microscopic was filll Of ri.
chimes; and thea cutting a slice Of ittenter-
ed il to the unbeliering veterinary. Or. Ur-
ban was rather taken aback; he declined 20
make the experiment but the jeers Of the
meeting having touched him he took little
nibble al the prcfered slice and hurriedly
left the room. He proceeded to a neighbor-
ing chemist, and administered 70 himself 50
violent an emeiic that lsays Yos Zeitung)
the learned Doctors friends need labor un-
der no apprehension Of his safety.--Ind;aa-
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