The Charleston daily news. [volume] (Charleston, S.C.) 1865-1873, 1866-06-30
What "Trtchininsis" Is.
HOW WORMS GET INTO HUMAN MUSCLES.

DR.. WINTERS recent work contains paper
about the unpleasant Trichiniasis caused by the
minute worm Triohnie spiras, which Professor
OWEN found as long ago as 1885, in muscles taken
to him from the dissectiug rooms Of Guys and st.
Bartholomew Hospitals in London
How tho worm got into the muscle was unknown
till ZENuER, in 1860, connected cause with effect
by tracing tho trchinp in tho voluntary muscles
of girl who died, to the trichinH in raw ham and
sausages that sho had eaten. Pork is the danger
ous meat tho pig gets trichinp by eating dead
rats and other garbage, and if tho pigs flesh be
not so thoroughly cooked rs to kill the worms it
may carry living trichnm into tho human stom-
ach, whence they will pierce their way to the
muscular tissue. DR.. WINTER says: ?
After entering the alimentary canal the para
site finds it's breeding ground, and brings forth
immense numbers of young, which Immediately
begin to make their way through the coats of the
ntestincs and migrate into the muscles.
1t is singular fact that these disagrceable nd
venturers always select the voluntary muscles, or
those which are moved at our will. The heart
and kidneys, and those parts of the viscera which
% Of dspaye Sow
the worms get distributed 80 generally over the
body, some anatomists asserting that they make
bores through piece Of timber. but DR.. Thudi-
chum, who was appointed in 1864 to Investigate
tho subject by the medical officer Of the Prvy
~.
| and are in this manner distributed equally over
every part of the body. To use his words: car
rived in the capillaries terminal blood vessels),
they penetrate their two coated walls, separating
| the hbres as man separates the branches OF n
| hedge when creeping through it, and are now
either at once in muscular tissues, their proper
and cavities, and there either perish or escape
from them by a renewed effort at locomotion, en-
ter tho circulation second time and untimey
perish in the lungs, or arrive in some muscle to
| obtain O late asylum"
This hypothesis certainly seems tho most rea-
sonablc, as it is in agreement with the known
means by which other entoza migrate. Arrived
at the muscular tissues it seems again question
able whether the worm attacks the muscle only,
or ~l whether it is not deposited in the intervals
Leuckhart says they penetrate the sarcolemma
and eat the muscular tibre ITSELF DIR. Thudichum
says that he has never seen but once the worm in
the muscle, but always outside of it. It is GER
tainly strange fact, that, in many cases, per-
sons attacked with trichiniasis, have not only
become as strong as ever; It could scarcely
have happened that the muscles of these patients
had been fed upon by vast colonies OF worms,
which would have inevitably destroyed them
beyond repair. The probability is that the
worm finds its way into all the tissues. Between
the third and fourth week after immigration. the
to prepare its capsule. It becomes fixed to the
spot in which it is, solid matter is deposited
around it, and, curled up, it lies immovable in it's
plastic capsule, and dies unless received again
into the alimentsry canal Of another animal, which
| in this case of course it never does.
The presence Of these enoapsuled trichinp in
the muscles may cause irritation, bu. that speed
lily subsidies; and it is pretty clear that many per-
sons suffer little harm from them whilst thus
curled up, as they have been found in the bodies
OF subjects that have been dissected, and whose
previous history gave no evidence of their ex-
istence.
On the other hand the malsay Shs%
well-known diseases. The fever caused by the
presence of tho parent worms in the intestines
may be, as indeed it often has been, taken for
gastric fever. Then, again, when the young worms
| are lmmigrating into the muscles, the most ex-
| cruciating agony seizes the patient: he cannot
move muscle without the utmost pain, and he
lies generally upon his back, with his legs little
apart, covered with perspiration. The face and
neck become tumid with dropsical effusion
which gradually extends to the legs and abdomen
AN attack OF rheumatic fever appears to have
seized the individual, but for the want of the
heart symptoms Again, the disease Stimulates
cholera and typhus, and indeed poisoning in many
or Its symptoms; but those who have seen q
genuine case OF trichiniasis cannot be deceived,
as the whole symptoms present are consistent
with no other disease In cases of doubt piece of
the living muscle has been excised from the biceps
muscle Of the arm; and this test is almost certain
to be conclusive, as the worm is distributed in
severe cases, in prof1sion through every voluntary
Dr. Thudicun, speaking of child who died of
the disease, says in his report to Mr.. Simon !:
'One preparation from the biceps muscle of a
child chi four and half years Of age, which died on
number Of fifty:eight. Such preparation was es.
timated to weigh one-fifth of a grain, and there
fore every grain Of muscle contained on an ave-
rage one hundred triohine. Now, assuming the
ty pounds, and assuming him to be the vi ctim Of
trichinasis, and the parasites equally distributed
throughout his body, he would contain upwards
OF tWenty-eight millions of these animals"