National opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1865-1874, 1874-02-13
Pork Poisoning.

Pork Poisoning.
Alarming Consequences from the Intro
duction OF Trichinsp Spiralis into the
Human Body.
Professor william Clendenin, who
fills the chair OF anatomy in the Miami
Cincinnati Medical College, returned
from professional visit to Aurora, In
diana, twenty.six miles below, on the
Ohio river. The object OF his visit was
the investigation OF several cases of
trichine spiralis, OF recent occurrence
in that place. The first victims are
Mrs. Threnart, o German widow, and
her three children. two boys, aged four.
teen and seven years, and q girl aged
ten years.
Dr.. Clendenin was interviewed by q
reporter, and furnished the facts which
follow
It appears that Mrs. Threnart had
two hogs killed for homo consumption
about four weeks ago, one of which had
been sick, after running the streets q
month or so before killing. The animal
had what is called the "droop." 1t was
stiff in the limbs, and lost appetite. but
after dosing with sulphur and sweet
milk it recovered and fattened up. A
quantity Of sausage was made with the
meat, and of this Mrs. Threnart and
her children partook freely. On Mon
day it was prepared and cooked in the
usual way. On Tuesday the parties
took sick, complained OF whitening
pain in the bowels, Of being very tired
and sore all over the surface of the
body. Vomiting and diarrhea set in,
and the family physician was called.
He thought the symptoms were those OF
typhoid fever, and treated accordingly.
The illness of the mother and her chill
dren excited the sympathy of her neigh
bors, and they took it in turn to nurse
them.
Mrs. Buyter, wife of the Methodist
minister, with her two children, the
youngest only four years old, was the
first nurse, and devoted herself exclu-
sively to the Christian duty. She took
up her abode in the sick house, and,
when meal time came, prepared and
ate some of the sausage, together with
the youngest child. The other child
would not touch it.
On the next day, Thursday, Mrs.
Buyter and her child were seized in the
same manner as the victims she came
to nurse, and still no suspicion was
aroused as to the cause.
The same evening Miss Davis, aged
nineteen, and Miss Mollenhoff, aged
twenty, two charming young women,
came to nurse the sick, and at supper
partook of the sausage and some of the
fried meat. They were seized with
pains in the stomach and bowels in an
hour and were deathly sick. An old
woman prescribed hot whisky punch
and made them drink freely, which in
creased the vomiting, and they are now
convalescing.
A lad named Krieger, who brought
kindling wood to Mrs. Threnart's
house, had supper and is also down
with the same sickness.
Finally Mrs. Ross came and ate of
the meat and soon after took sick in the
same manner as all the others but she
at once suspected the meat as the cause
and said so to the physician.
He called in DR.. Sutton, of the
Health Department, and scientific
analysis OF the sausage, cooked and
raw, was made, upon which the start.
ling fact was revealed that the meat
was literally alive with the trichinm
spiralis.
So tenacious is this little thing of life
that it was seen to survive the picking
process and the cooking of the meat.
The entire carcass of the hog that had
been sick is infected not ovon the
bones being free from the invasion of
the entozoon. Under the microscope
it looks like knots and coils of the COM
mon earth worm, with very sharp or
pointed extremities, and while this is
being written speck of the flesh, not
larger than the head of a small pin, is
on view, and contains millions of the
maggots wriggling and twisting about,
although totally invisible to the naked
eye.
When DIR. Clendenin left Aurora all
the patients. except the two young
ladies, we're still lying very ill. The
symptoms were alike in all. A peculiar
paleness of the skin, with livid puff
ness around the eyes, and the lower ex-
tremities pulled and swollen. They lie
crouched up in bed, with the shoulders
drawn forward and the knees drawn up
to the chin. There is q painful weak
ness in the limbs. It is painful to pro-
trude the furred and thickened tongue.
The voice is husky and changed in
tone. There is diarrhea, with ten
dency to dysentery. thirst, complete
loss of appetite, and fever which in
creases towards night.
The Oldest boy and the girl of Mrs.
Threnart, and Mrs. Buyter, the minis
ter's wife, who is fine, healthy woman,
will undoubtedly die but some hopes
are entertained that all the other VIC
Tins will survive.
The affair has created the GREATEST
alarm and CONSERVATION in the COM
munity of Aurora, where there is
large German population, which lives
on pork and other meat of the hog
kind. A crowd of them invaded DR..
Fulton's room at the hotel with pieces
Of pork, sausage and ham to have them
examined for fear of trichine, and pub
lie confidence has been so much shaken
in pork, as an article of food, that the
is tabooed and it is now
drug in the Aurora market.
Moving as One.
Tl,o A.