Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1874-07-14
THE FBIGHTFUL TRICHINA
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cured ham, without cooking, and to cor
rect this perilous habit We eOndense
/ from the statement of an Iowa physi-
clan some account OF how the trlchiDa
work in the human system, as reported
in the Des Moj,les Register.
Four Of the Family taking i'll at the
same time. and in the same manner,
aroused our suspicious as to poison of
some kind. We made all sorts Of in.
/ quiries about the cellar, well, and as TO
what they had eaten. We asked them
the general questions as to whether
they ever ate raw pork, and the answer
was, no. Subsequently, however, when
all the symptoms resembled those of
trichinous disease, We put these ques-
tons in more particular manner, and
learned that the persons affected Mrs.
| Daily, her son and two daughters) had
been in the habit of slicing off pieces
off smoked ham and eating it.
The microscopealso reveals the little
animal imbedded in the muscular fbres
of the ham from which the meat had
been taken, 50 the diagnosis is unmis-
taxable.
We will state few of the more
prominent symptoms presented in these
cases. The patients were all taken at
the onset with diarrhea and nausea,
followed by great prostration and fever.
At the end of about a week there was
puffiness about the eyes, but not in
hammation. The limbs and various
parts of the body began to grow stiff
and sore; patients exhibited great in
disposition to muscular movements.
Fever continued until the end of the
second week, when it subsidized in all
the cases except that of Mrs. Daily,
who had inflammation of the lungs
complicating her case. This was soon
brought under subsection, since which
time all the patients have been able to
walk slowly about the house The little
girls resemble IN their walk persons 50
years of age.
In lecture IN this horrible para
site, DR.. Bridge cited the case of a
sailor who ate piece of partly cooked
sausage, and was shortly afterward
brought to the dispensary for treat
ment. The diagnosis was that of a
probable case of typhoid fever, and,
about three weeks later, when DIR.
Bridge took charge of the patient, the
treatment had been for fever. He took
a piece out of the arm of the man and
found a large number of the worms in
it. By this time he was very feeble,
and he died about two weeks later. In
this instance there was no diarrhea,
and though the number taken into the
stomach was originally small, they all
probably multiplied, and none were
carried off.
DR.. Bridge believes that the worms
pass without nutrient matter from the
bowels into the blood, and thence are
readily distributed to the limbs, heart,
eyes and all other parts of the body.
How rapidly or slowly they multiply
does not seem to be generally known.
After they become encysted with case
Of phosphate Of lime in the muscles,
what is tie next change in their devel-
opment: When the little worm Matched
from the egg of the gad-hy deposited
by the female on the back Of a COW or
steer, passes through the skin, it lies
there torpid, in cold climates, nine or
ten months before it. comes out. The
young gad-fy and bot-fy are undesira-
bic parasites, but that called trichiHd in
the singular number, and triehiae in
the plural, appears not to know the diff
ference between human flesh and that
of swine.
Bots and other worms in horses,
grubs in the backs of cattle and the
heads of sheep may not do great harm;
but they exhibit life subsisting on life,
by natural process, which has in its
wide range infinitely more meaning
than is understood. If we would change
wet flour into light dough for bread,
we must raise it by the vital force of a
lire yeast plant; and alcohol in beer or
bread is changed into vinegar by the
action of lire vinegar plant. Every
where it is growth and decay.
1t is parasite vitality that attacks
man in trichinR, in cholera germs and
in many fevers, sometimes causing
death in a few hours. We cannot de-
wise proper preventives of any malady
before we learn its true nature and
origin. Cooking hog meat is found to
be sure check on the spread of trichi-
nR through the human system, because
$50 degrees of heat kills the germs of
the parasites.
Vegetable parasites may yet be de-
stroyed by heat in some form.
When miasmatic cells are floating in
the atmosphere, the air we breathe
may need cooking like the water in our
coffee and tea, and the meat, bread
and vegetables we eat. One of the
great benefits Of boiling, baking and
roasting may be to destroy all antag-
onist life in what is taken into the sys-
TEN. If the air in hot weather is full
of microscopic enemies, they had bet
ter be cooked, and filtered out in our
dwellings before the air enters our
lungs.
The microscope tells us that we have
enemies invisible to the naked eye,
which send millions of our species to
untimely graves. These enemies must
be looked after, and possibly they may
be assailed in a more successful way
than is now practiced.
REPUDIATION WITH A VENGEANCE.
w. r.