The Red Cloud chief., 1874-04-02
Some OUTBREAKS Of Trichiniasis.

Apropos of the recent alarming out
break OF trichiniasis at Aurora, Ind,
the Cincinnati Commercial gives the
following facts relating TO previous
cases :
It may not be undressing to the
general reader to know that the trichin@
are more frequently found in the muscles
Of the human body than has generally
been supposed. They were first OBJ
served by Fiedemann in 1922, but first
fully described by Prof. Owen in 1885.
who supposed they were q harmless
parasite ; and for a long time they were
considered simply as a dissectiDg-room
curiosity. But in 1860 a young girl
died in the Dresden hospital from the
effects of trichine, as was afterward
fully proved by Prof. Zenker. Her
flesh was found after death to be full of
trichina. "They we're alive, some
coiled up and others lying straight ; and
they appeared to be in all stages OF de-
velopment, and in every part Of the body,
not even excepting the heart itself" At
the same time Prof. Zenker learned
that, soon after the girl had been taken
i'll, hehousekeeper became unwell with
similar symptoms /; and all the servants
were taken sick about the same time.
The butcher who killed the pigs was
also found to be i'll. "He had been
three weeks in bed, suffering from
rheumatic pains in the limbs, and had
been as if paralyzed over his body
unable to move his arms. legs, OF. neck.
He had always been q strong man. He
thought he had taken cold the day he
killed the pigs ; but when it is known
10 be a habit of German butchers TO
taste the meat they kill, in the raw con
dition, the history of these cases to
Prof. Zenker became a history of trich-
iniatous disease"
Some of the girls flesh was fed to q
rabbit, and it died within a month, with
symptoms of the disease, and it's mus
cles and flesh were found to be filed
with the trichin@. Other rabbits we're
fed with the flesh of this first rabbit,
and they died with similar symptoms,
and their flesh was found to contain
myriads OF trichine.
Prot. Langdenbeck, Of Berlin, relates
the following "In 1916 there was a
church visitation, in which eight per-
SONS took part, and seven sat down to q
breakfast consisting Of ham, sausages,
cheese, roast veal and white wine. In
the course of three or four days every
n OF the seven persons was seized
with diarrhee, pains in the neck, SWELL
ing OF the face and extremities. Of the
seven, four died, and the three who
survived remained i'll for a long time"
Another instance of the outbreak of
this disease is related by Aitken SIN
October, 1863, there was'a festival held
IN Helstadt. in Prussia, on which occa-
sion lob persons ate Of sausage, called
by the Germans rOOsteWurst. On the
day after the dinner several parsons
were STACKED With great irritation Of
the bowels /; great prostration and fever.
Within a month more than twenty per-
sons died, and more than eighty per-
SONS we're then suffering from the fear
after cas- died a slow and lingering
death. Active inquiry into all the cir
cumstances of the dinner was instituted,
and the sausages being examined with
the microscope, we're found to be literally
swarming with trichin@.
The vitality of the trichina is truly
wonderful /; it is not destroyed unless
the meat in which they are found located
be subjected to the temperature of boil
ing for such a length of time as to in
sure that every particle has been acted
upon by that degree of heat. And who
would then be willing to partake Of such
meat? The usual mode Of sailing and
smoking meat is not sufficient to destroy
trichine if present in it.