The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1869-05-15
Pork as an Article of Food.
TRICHINA SPIRALIS.


ach-worms, and many other round worms
parasitic in man and various animals, be-
long to an order of worms very different
from the tape-worm described in our first
article. The latter are remarkable for lack
ing distinct mouth and intestine Though
the printers by a curious mistake, made us
speak of them ''gnawing" instead of grow
ing. But the round worms have we'll
formed mouth and intestine, and are, there
fore, much more highly organized. Yet
the Trichina is remarkable like the tape
worm, for being obliged to pass its life in
the bodies of two different animals in order
to reach maturity.
The young Trichina, like young tape
worms, occur imbedded in the muscles of
the hog and several other animals, and
man. But unlike the young tape worms or
"measles," the young Trichina are so
small as to be quite invisible to the eye,
and millions of them may exist in the flesh
of pig without producing any unusual
appearance in the meat sufficient to attract
the attention even of an expert, unless ex-
amined with a powerful microscope. This
is one reason why deaths so frequently oc-
cur from eating pork filled with this para
site. When recently introduced into pork,
the little worms are free among the muscu-
lar fibres, but after four or five weeks they
become enclosed in minute whitish elon-
gated cysts or capsules, due to the irrita-
ton and inflammation that they cause by
feeding and moving. After year or more
these cysts become calcitied by deposit of
carbonate of lime in the membrane, and at
this time are visible to tie eye as minute
specks, about the size of hemp seed, scat
tered through the muscles. When enclosed
in the cyst, the worms become dormant,
and though they may live for years, and
even some time after the death of their
host, they can do no further harm unless
swallowed by man or some animal. Each
cyst contains little slender, worm about
one thirtieth of an inch long, and one seven
hundredth thick, coiled up in two or three
turns.
HOW THE WORMS ARE BRED.
If pork containing these worms, either
free or enclosed in cysts, be eaten by man,
they become liberated in the stomach, and
entering the intestine attach themselves to
its soft lining, and there, surrounded with
abundant food, they grow very rapidly and
become mature, with fully developed sexual
organs, in about two days. The females
are larger and more numerous than the
males. and become about one-tenth of
an inch long when full grown. The males
soon die, but the females begin to give birth
to living young in four or five days from
the time when swallowed, and they live
long enough to produce brood Of from
five hundred to one thousand young worms
each. AS one ounce of pork sometimes
contains half million or more of the
worms, it is not surprising that the millions
of adult worms and their offspring, some
times resulting from single meal of raw
pork, should, by their very presence, pro-
duce great irritation of the intestine and
violent diarrh9a and vomiting, which are
often the first symptoms in severe cases.
But the young worms, almost as soon rs
born, begin to eat their way through the
lining membrane of the intestine into the
minute blood vessels and absorbents, thus
vastly increasing the irritation. Entering |
thus the circulation, they are carried by
the blood to the heart. thence to the lungs. |
system.
Great numbers often lodge in the capil- !
larry blood vessels of the heart, lungs, and |
various other organs, producing great irri- |
tation and various symptoms, but the ma
.iority finally arrive and remain i'll the vol |
untary muscles, where the diameter of the .
small blood vessels is not sufficient to allow |
them to pass through. When the lodge |
in the capillary vessels, they soon force !
their way through their walls, and thus find
themselves among the muscular tibres, .
where they live and thrive for some weeks, /
making for themselves passages and even /
entering and destroying, in some eases. the /
fibres themselves. All these operations |
cause, of course, an immense amount of
inflammation and irritation, if, as often |
happens, millions of these fiesh-worms are |
at work at the same time in all parts of the !
system: and it is no wonder that many vio-
lent symptoms and high fever result, or |
that there should be intense soreness and
pain in the muscles. and dropsical swellings. |
Death in severe cases may occur at any time |
from the fifth to the fiftieth day! The du-
nff 1,o 1icanca 1ilyo tic &c n
direct proportion to the number of living |
Trichnp swallowed, and varies from two |
weeks to three or four months. The only |
direct remedies are powerful purgatives .
administered as soon as possible in order /
to expel the adult females before their full
broods have been produced. Castor oil and !
calomel have been chiefly useful for this /
purpose. Even in many comparatively ,
mild coses the suffering is intense and the +
recovery slow and tedious, while many sec !
ondary diseases. like pneumonia, are liable .
to ensue When all the worms have be- !
come lodged in the muscles and enclosed in |
the cysts, the direct symptoms cease. and,
if the strength of the patient has been kept !
up. recovery is probable. /
NUMBERS FOUND IN PERSONS.
Persons i'll robust health may be able to
survive the attack of half million OF !
more of these flesh worms and recover, but !
there is limit to all human endurance, and |,
the numbers often contained i'll the muscles /
of persons who have been killed by them
are almost incredible. Microscopic prepa- /
tions not much larger than a pins head Of
ten contain from ten to forty worms and |
one bit of muscle weighing about one-tifth |,
Of a grain. from child that died on the !
seventy-ninth day, contained iifty-eight.-
Allowing one hundred worms to a grain of
muscle, man might contain twenty-eight !
millions of the parasites, and the length of
the muscular iibres actively intiamed 10y ;
such a number, if placed in a line, wonld
amount to ninety miles.
The cysts containing Trichin:r were first |
,hsarvr1 in human muscles in 1922 but the /