Bradford reporter. [volume] (Towanda, Pa.) 1844-1884, 1866-05-10

fever to lead to suspicion of the real ma
ture of the affection.
Prevention is far better than cure, and
happily this can be easily accomplished
As pork is the only means by which the
parasite can enter the human frame, we
have only to take care that we eat it thor
oughly cooked.
The Englshman has very strong pre-
judice in favor of doing his leg OF pork well,
however much he may like beef and mutton
underdone. The Germans are apt to suffer
desperate outbreaks of this disease because
they are fond of smoked causages, in which
no heat is applied to the meat. The sew
erty of the infection depends indeed upon
the amount of cooking to which the trichi-
nous meat has been subjected, and the or
der in which it is affected is as follows {:
raw meat, smoked sausage, cervelat sau-
sage, raw smoked ham, raw smoked sau-
sage, fried sausage, fried meat balls, Drawn,
picked pork, blood sausage, boiled pork.
AS few people are likely to eat raw pork,
there seems little danger to be apprehen-
ded from the most dangerous item in the
list but it is we'll to know that boiled
pork is in all cases the most harmless.
The power of the worm to resist heat
and cold is very remarkable. They have
often been frozen to five degrees below CEN
tigrade, and have been thawed to life
again Ordinary vermifuges are power
less against them-their vitality is as
great as the wheelworm, which seems al
most indestructible. Let our friends, then,
take care never to touch the smallest por-
ton of underdone pork, and beware OF
German sausages, polOnies, and things OF
the same kind, as they would beware OF an
assassin.
Before the discovery Of the new disease,
trichiniasis, several epidemics occurred in
Germany, which very much puzzled the
physicians.
In two or three cases it was supposed
that the persons suffering had been pol
soned in some mysterious manner, and Ju-
dicial inquiries were instituted without
any result. More generally, however, the
outbreaks were ascribed to rheumatic fe
yer, or typhus fever. 1t was observed at
the time of their occurrence that the out
breaks were confined to particular families,
regiments, or villages.
The symptoms, then obscure, are now
recognized as those of trichinasis indeed,
there seems to be little doubt that they
were outbreaks of this disorder. They all
occurred in the spring of the year, the time
of pig-sticking in Germany, and the very
characteristic swelling of the face, in the
absence of any kidney disease, was OBJ
served.
The morality arising from this disease is
in direct ratio to the severity of the attack,
and this depends upon the number of worms
which may chance to be introduced into
body One pig is sufficient to cause an ep-
idemic far and wide; indeed, many of those
which have ravaged Germany within these
last three or four years have been traced
to one trichinous pig
At the outbreak at Planen one person
died out of thirty attacked At Cable
where the epidemic was more severe seven
persons died out of thirty-eight infected ;
at Hettstadt, where one trichinous pig in
fected one hundred and fifty-eight persons,
twenty-eight died From these facts the
formidable nature of the infection may be
gathered.
If sudden epidemics can be traced to the
action of an obscure worm, may we not
hope that many of our disorders, now OBJ
scure in their origin, and consequently un-
manageable and incurabe, will in time
come to light, and be amenable to treat
ment Possibly some more subtitle power
even than the microscope will be discov-
ered and give us the power of scrutiniz-
ing diseased conditions, and finding out
the agents SO stealthily at work in bring
ing the human machine to misery and pre-
mature death.