Connecticut western news., 1874-02-20
Pork Poisoning.
Alarming Consequences from the Ihtro- duotiOn of Trichinte Spirnlis into the Human Body.

Alarming Consequences from the Intro
 duction of TrIchinte SpirmIts 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 tIichin@ spiralis, of recent occurrence in that place. The first victims are Mrs. Threnart, German widow, and her three children, two boys, aged four teen and seven years, and girl aged ten years.
 Dr. Clendenin was interviewed by a reporter, and furnished the facts which | follow:-
 It appears that Mrs. Threnart had two hogs killed for home consumption about four weeks ago, one of which had been sick, after running the streets a month or so before killing. The animal had what is called the "droop." It was stiff in the limbs, and lost appetite, but after dosing with sulphur and sweet milk 1t 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. l. o1> 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 mea! 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 tho stomach and bowels in an hour and were deathly sick. An old woman prescribed hot whisky punch aud 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 trichine spiralis.
 So tenacious is this little thing of life that 1t was seen to survive the pickling process and the cooking of the meat. The entire carcass of the hog that had been sick is infected not even 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 small pin, is on view, and contains millions of the maggots wriggling and twisting about, although totally invisible to the naked eye.
 When Dr. Clendenin left Aurora all the patients, except the two young ladies, were 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 puffed and swollen. They lie crouched up iu bed, with the shoulders drawn forward and the knees drawn up to the chin. There is 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 a 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 Q fine, healthy woman, will undoubtedly die but some hopes are entertained that all the other vic- tims will survive.
 The affair has created the greatost alarm and consternation 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- lic confidence has been so much shaken in pork, as an article of food, that the commodity is tabooed and it is now a drug in the Anrora market.