Ashtabula weekly telegraph. [volume] (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1853-1873, 1867-04-13
Triehina Spirals.


following account of six cases of trichina which
o ccurred in that place:
Six cases of dread disease known as
trichina spirals have occurred in this city,
with fatal result, yesterday afternoon,
one of them. The family of Bansley
Hall, are the victims, and the disease is
traceable to ham, which was perchased a
few weeks ago. The family ate freely of
this ham in its raw state, no part OF it
being cooked, and in a few days unpleas-
ant SYMPTOMS began to. manifest them
selves. On the I'd day of March, Mr.
Hall, feeling unwell, summoned physic-
ian, and about the same time his son
Cornelius, was attacked in similar way,
but not so severely. On the following
Saturday his daughter Ida, aged II, was
taken with the same disease the next
Tuesday, her sister Laura, two years
younger; the next Saturday, Mrs. Hall,
and subsequently, Mrs. Halls father, Mr..
Church. Its noticeable that Ida, who
was fondest of the ham and ate the most
freely of it was the sickest Of the family,
and after singular illness of little more
than two weeks, she died yesterday after
noon about two o'clock. The others were
i'll almost in propotion to the amount of
the ham they had eaten, but it is hoped
that all the survivors will recover. The
illest one is now Mrs. Hall, whose case is
still critical: but the others are consider
ed out of danger. Mr. Church has stout
ly refused to be considered sick and has
taken no medicine, but his limbs are so
badly swoolen that his boots cannot be re-
moved from his feet. Miss Olive Robin
son was in the family when the ham was
eaten and helped eat it. She went from
there to Albany, where she has been sick
precisely with the same SYMPTOMS.
The pork disease, caused by minute
worms preying upon the muscles, is the
one which has proved fatal in thousands
of cases in Germany, and has also appear
ed in some of our western cities. In the
case of Mr.. Halls family the SYMPTOMS
were quite uniform, varying only in de-
gree or intensity. The first one was a
violent pain through the eyes, which soon
became swoolen and bloody. This was
followed by pains in the stomach and
bowels, with vomiting and a very often
sive bilious and mucous diarrhoea.
There was at the same time and subse-
quently the most profuse perspiration
urination, and the face and limbs became
badly swollen. And after the swelling
and bloody appearance in the eyes had
disappeared, which occurred at about the
end of the third day, the limbs began to
be rigid. When lying perfectly at ease
the patient would feel no pain, but the
least movement of the limbs would cause
terrible agony, and touching them in GER
tain places would also cause great pain.
Ida, the young lady who died, could only
lie with her lower limbs perfectly straight;
the least change from this position caused
dreadful suffering. During all her Illness
her pulse was never slower than $50 or
I40 a minute, while during the last four
days it was too quick to be counted.
During the first part of the time her hands
and feet were cold and clammy, while the
rest of her body retains its natural
warmth. She fell asleep, and never woke.
The physician in attendance was not fully
satisfied as to the actual disease until
Yesterday but his treatment was the
$ same lnr that is, laid down in the books for
trichina spiralis, and, with the exception
of the copions urination, the SYMPTOMS
were mainly the same. The cases have
excited great interest in the medical pro-
fession, and it is to be hoped that mi
croscopic examination of a muscle will be
made to ascertain whether trichina are
really present, and thus confirm or dlsap-
prove the theory held with regard to
these singular cases.