The Placer herald., 1866-08-04
Correspondence Of the Chicago Times.

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Correspondence of the Chicago Times.
MARION, Linn Co., Iowa, June IA, 1855
A most intense excitement in this commu
nifty has been created-and l notice from
the papers considerable attention attracted
throughout the country-by The occurrenc,
OF that mysterious aud dreadful diseas,
known as tr!nchiniasis, or pork disease: and
believing that true and complete report o
the facts would not be uninteresting to YOU
numerous readers, l am induced to furnish
the following history Of the cases:
family of ten in this place, composed o
Mr.. Bemis, aged 70; Mrs. Bems, 81; Henr,
Bemis, 90; Whittier Bemis, 20; Mr.. Ian,
sing, (souin'law Of Mr.. Bemis), bis wife
two little sons and two little daughters were
all except Mr.. Lansing peculiarly and Sc
rously attacked, about the 10th Of April
with disease Of an unusual and remarka
bic set Of symptoms, such as vomiting, diar
rh9a, pains in the bowels. profuse sweating
swelling Of The face, stiffening of the mus
ces Of the jaw, with fever of a typhoid
character. After week or so, great pains
were felt 10 the muscles Of the arms, legs
DC, similar TO muscular rheumatism, accom-
panied with considerable swelling of the
limbs and general dropsical effusion
throughout the cellular tissue.
In The absence of positive knowledge that
the patients had eaten thricbinous meat, and
The fever assuming somewhat typhoid char
acter. The attending physician, DR.. E. M.
Smith, was induced, in the absence of bet.
ter name, TO diagnose the disease typhoid
fever, and treated the cases accordingly
combating the symptoms as they presented
themselves.
On April 80, Drs. H. Ristine- and T. S
BardweI were called in consultation with
DIR. Smith, and, after thorough investigation,
all three OF the physicians came to the con.
clusion that the symptoms clearly indicated
trchinasis. In the meantime it had been
ascertained that all the family except Mr..
Lansing bad been eating more or less of raw
ham, the severity of the disease being in
proportion TO the amount eaten by each.
Mr. Lansing who ate none at all, was not af
fected, he being the only one that was not
The second day after the consultation, June
l, Mr.. Lauspg's little boy, aged l3, died.
Next day, Henry Bemis died, and Mr.. Lam
sings other little boy died on the 9lh-three
in all up to the present date. The old peo-
Pile, Mr.. and Mrs. Bemis are hourly expected
to die. A post mortem was held over the
body Of the first that died, and portions Of
the muscle from different parts of the body
were obtained and thoroughly examined with
the microscope by all the doctors of Marion
md eo,oroI fror, Color Don;Ie spho CoupH
the parasite in large numbers, variously esti'
mated by different ones on different pieces
Of muscle, to contain from 10000 to 26l,'
600 TO the square cubic inch. Portions
were also sent to Prof j. Adams Allen, NJ.
d, IL. D.; J. W. Freer, N. D.; Ephraim
IngaIs, NJ D., and Laskie Miller, M. D. OF
the Rush Medical College, Chicago; to Prof.
Austin Flint, M. D., of New York; to Prot.
Ludlum, of the Haaneman School, Chicago,
and to Asa How, M. D., Of Dubuque, Iowa,
for examination. As far as has been heard
from, these gentlemen have all found the
muscles swarmng with trichine, the average
Of the whole being 100000 to the cubic
inch. The motions Of the parasite were
plainly discernabIe in almost every specimen
placed beneath the microscope. A piece of
The ham of which the family ate could not
be obtained for examination, but portion
of the same hog that the family partook Of
was previously given to healthy sow, which
resulted in its death. The muscle of the SOW
was examined and found to be full Of trichina.
will here state that the hogs, from one
of which the ham that the family ate was
were raised by member OF the
family living in the country, and that some
OF his hogs had had the "hog cholera" last
fall, but recovering from the disease, as was
supposed, were fattened and butchered with
the rest. Doubtless the meat eaten by the
family was from one Of the hogs that had
the cholera last fall The inference is clear,
then, that "hog cholera" in the hog is the
same disease as trichiniasis in man, and that,
if man eats the raw flesh Of swine infected
with cholera, he will have tricbiniasis, and If
the bog should eat portion Of the muscle
of man infected with trchina, the hog
would be taken with ''hog cholera" Or, 10
other words, it is the same disease.
In view of the alarming and startling
character Of this new disease, it is very nat
ural that people should feel little apprehen
sive about The use Of pork, and that the
az owledged existence Of such fearful dis
ease in pork will greatly affect The pork mar
ket. But with proper wa,chfulness and care,
no fear need be entertained. II the acknowl- J.
edged theory of trichin@ is true, and if tri'
chna in the hog is the cause Of the "hog
cholera" the same disposition should be
made of all hogs affected that is generally
made of dogs affected with hydrophobia.-
Though cooking is generally believed to de-
s,roy the parasite, at any rate it is much
safer to avoid uncooked pork in any shape
If there are those who are not satisfied with
these precautions, they can make themselves
doubly sure by procuring the proper kind o.
q microscope and examining for themselves
each piece Of pork they propose TO eat.
Since. writing the above, DR.. Henry Ris
tine, of this place, reports that be has jus
visited six similar cases 10 the Jordan lam
lily, 10 this county, twelve miles north 0
~ e tsAuta haUa haal