Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1880-03-13
Death I'm Raw Pork.

Notwithstanding frequent well-attested cases
OF death from trichina, both here aud abroad
many persons, mainly of the uneducated class,
seem to think trichina, as source Of fatal disease
an invention OF physicians. Every few weeks
we observe the records OF a fatal case in the
west, usually In TIE country. Recently two
deaths, those of Mrs. Harris and her daughter,
have been reported at the VILLAGE of West Sonora,
Ohio. They informed their physician that a
week or so before their illness, they had eaten
freely Of raw pork; that they experienced almost
Immediately exceeding nausea, and were COM
PEELED to go to bed, from which they never
arose. All their symptoms were those
there Is no reasonable doubt that they owe
their death to the raw pork. Trichina, or
rtchlna spbahs, is the name of peculiar
nematold worm, which, In its sexual imma-
turity, inhabits the muscles, generally OF the
pig 1t was discovered in 1885, Wormald,
then Delnonstrator OF Anatomy at St Barthoio-
news Hospital, London. giving to Richard
owen, the celebrated naturalist, TOUR micro
scoptc specimens OF specked muscle from SUBJ
ject then in the dSsecting ROOMS Owen, who
has usually received credit for the discovery,
communicated. soon after, to the Geological
Society n description OF a microscopic ent0:1on
infestiDg the muscles OF The human Gody.
medical student named Paget had also arrived
independently. at similar results at the same
time, and read paper to the Abernethian So
ciety week before owen had presented his
Ever since then, the trichina has been actively
discussed ON both sides OF the sea In all medical
and scientific associations. Various theories
were advanced, but it was not till 1850
That NlrchOW and Leuckhart arrived sep.
arately. by feeding animals on flesh containing
trichina, at the conclusion that the parents or
the encysted trichina are small thread-like
worms, never before revealed to SCIENCE Leuck-
harris experiments being made with human
flesh occupied by these parasites. Young
trtchina, as seen in the muscles, look like Spl-
rally-cciled worms in the interior of small
globular oval cystS, and are barely perceptible
TO the naked eye. These cysts are externally
covered with calcareOuS matter, more or less
according to the time they have remained fixed
and the degree CT degeneration OF their walls
The worm measures lis OF an inch long and
1-SO broadr The cysts are sometimes wholly
absent, and hence must be regarded as abaor-
mal-the result OF local Inflammation caused
by presence of the worm, which, in this
larval state, Is very much smaller. An
enormous number of these larvGn may exist
simultaneously in the muscles OF a single per-
son. Leuckhart estimated that one ounce OF
flesh of cat contained 1876 900 trichina. II all
the voluntary muscles OF a man OF ordinary
size were similarly affected, the worms would
exceed 1850, 00e,000. Some physicians assert
that single sufferer may be infected by 200oO,-
600. How the pig acquires its trlcnina IS I'M
known; but the larvai worms, no doubt, get
Into Its body from putrd flesh The adult ira
china may inhablt the intestinal canal of all
animals In which the Larvae have been found in
the muscles, and the animals include man, dog,
cat, mouse, rabbit, mole, rat, hedgehog, and
badger,-N, y, Times.