The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1878-05-23
Rare Meats and Trichin@.


the shad taken from Eastern rivers has
been bear in the fish market. The
fact is, the microscope is discovering
too much. A long time ago it was said
Ignorance is bliss" We doubt
whether it is going to add anything to
our happiness to see huge monsters de-
vouring each other, or sporting in the
glass of water which we place to our
lips. Nor will it be soothing to the i'm
agination to dwell upon the possibilities
of the porter-house steak and crisp
ham. the smoking white fish and bass,
being filed with deadly trlchine, which
will begin voyage of discovery and
research into the human anatomy as
soon as swallowed. The hysterical and
imaginative can have all the miseries
Of the reality by allowing themselves to
dwell upon the possibilities of the case.
To such ignorance is indeed bliss. This
much good will be taught the people,
however, and those who are wise will
listen. No greater humbug was ever
forced upon the human mind than that
thoroughly cooking meat makes it in
digestible. "Taking it rare'' has got
to be the prevailing style, and a man
who calls for his beef well done makes
the waiter stare. The proprietor won
ders at the education of q man who
sends his plate back because the blood
trickles from the open vessels, which
have scarcely felt the influence of fire.
The prevalence of trichine will proba-
bly, have one salutsry effect; it will
change the method of cooking in every
well regulated household. Raw and
uncooked meats have bad effect,
mentally and physically, upon the hui
man family, and we shall rejoice in the
reform that shall drive raw hams
and bloody roasts from the table,
and assign them where they belong-to
the digestion of the carnivora.
Fire kills trichina, yet no one will at
tempt to use as food any diseased ami
NAL. The parasite Just discovered in
the shad is different from that found in
the hog. The German physicians aver
that the trichina found in the hog can
not be wholly killed by cooking. A
boiled ham thus infested. cooked for a
day, would yet be dangerous article
of diet. DR.. Clendinen, who has been
examining the fish taken from the Hud-
son, says he was led to the investiga-
ton from the large number of persons
who were taken alarmingly i'll imme-
diately after eating fish.
He says, in making his experiments,
thorough cooking invariably destroyed
the life of the parasites which he found
in the fish. He argues further that the
parasite is not identical with the trich-
ina spiralis, but the interested public
will not care SO particularly about the
relationship of these pests as for the
methods of determination.
Another eminent physician. DR.. T.
F. Appel, of the United States Army,
who has q country residence at Fort
Lee, and has just been elected an hon
orary member of the New York Micro
scopical Society in recognition of dis
tinguished contributions to microscop-
ic science, dissents from the propriety
of styling DR.. Clendinen's discovery q
trichina.
"Dr. Appel produced specimens of
the same parasite taken from the gills
of . fresh shad, observing, as he did SO,
that they were altogether too large to
make good microscopic objects, being
more than six times a. long as the
fully developed trichine, which seldom
exceeds one fiftieth Of an inch in length.
When coiled. If viewed with inferior
lenses, they somewhet resemble the
trichina spiralis, and DR.. Clendinen
had very naturally mistaken them for
it. So far from such being the case,
however, the specimens under examin-
alton were ordinarily tricocephali, or
pin worm, Of the species familiar to
microscopists a. intestinal parasites
They are common, not only to the fish
tribe, but to the human family. They
are not supposed to be dangerous to
life, or even seriously injurious to
health; but if taken into the system un-
cooked might possibly produce diar.
rbes and other symptoms associated