The weekly clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1863-1882, 1881-05-05
TKICHINA.
A Letter from DR.. Joseph Leidy, Pro-
fessor of Anatomy in the University
of Pennsylvania.

To the Editor of the Philadelphia edger
PHILADELPHIA, PA, April S.-Freq uent
notices in the daily papers regarding pork
infested with trichina, and its danger when
used as food lead the writer to make few
remarks on this and kindred Subjects in the
view that they may serve to caution some
persons and give relief to the fears of others.
Abundant proof goes to show that the
| minute thread-worm, trichlna, IS ordinarily
| introduced into the human body by eating
raw pork infested with the parasite. The
trichina cannot be considered as common IN
the hog, occurring, perhaps, not ottener
| than once in ten thousand, and as pork Is
| usually not eaten raw the chances of intec-
| ton are few though sufficiently frequent to
| be worthy of the greatest care The para
| site is not dangerous from any inherent
| quality, nor does it "eat up the individual
| infested, as was intimated in the report OF
a recent case published in the newspapers.
| It's effects are proportioned to its NUMBERS,
each being a centre of irritation, and when
they number millions, distributed through
out the muscles, they become so many
"thorns in the flesh"
The temperature of boiling water will not
only kill trichina, but all other parasitic
worms, so that by cooking meats all danger
of becoming infested by them Is removed;
nor can any bad effects result, as no known
parasitic worm is poisonous. All our food
animals are liable to parasites, SO that there
is no use to think az discarding any one,
especially as all are innocuous when cooked.
The lovers of very rare beef occasionally
receive the tapeworm as guest, but the
occurrence is rarer than the parasite, for
the moderate heat to which the meat con-
tanning the latter has been subjected in
most cases is sufficient to kill 1T.
THE DISCOVERY OF TRICHINA
In man was made by the English surgeon,
Hilton, in 1888, and the worm was SUISSE
quently named by Owen. The parasite was
first discovered in the hog by the present
writer, thirty-fve years ago (see proceedings
of the Academy of Natural Sciences, Phil
adelphia, 1910, p. 1857 in the meat from
which he had dined. Luckily for him the
meat was cooked, and, while he escaped
trchinosis, the trichina did not escape him.
Observing minute spots IN the slice OF meat
on his plate, he reserved the piece an ex-
amined it with the microscope, which re-
vealed a multitude of diminutive worms
coiled up and inclosed in cysts. Little then
did he or others suspect the relationship of
trichina in the hos and man, or that It was
of any significance as an agent OF disease
and death nor was it then suspected that
| the parasite was probably the cause which
| led the great Iaw~giver of the Jews to
declare the hog to be an unclean beast,
unfit for food 1t is probable, from the
scarcity of good fuel in Palestine and other
countries of the Orient, that, when pork
was used as food, it was often eaten raw,
and thus may have frequently given rise to
disease and death, resulting from trichinosis,
the nature of which is a discovery of recent
| date. Perhaps millions have died from
| trichinosis, through successive centuries,
without any suspicion as to the source OF
| the affection. A soldier in the late civil
war said to the writer. Il wish had as
| many dollars as | have eaten pounds of raw
pork" Does not this suggest the idea that
many soldiers have died of trichinasis who
were suspected to have been victims OF
| typhoid, rheumatic, and malarial feyers
LET ALL MEATS BE PROPERLY COOKED
And all danger of parasitic infection is re-
moved. The writer long ago suggested that
primitive man was perhaps led to cook his
food from the impression that he would
burn the ugly worm he observed in skin
ming and preparing animals. and thus prevent
their introduction into his own body. LII -
not recommended that meats should be ex-
cessively cooked and even when rare they
may be safely eaten, but there is no GER
| tainty against infection it they are used in
a half cooked or nearly raw condition.
The writer is uncertain how far sailing
and smoking meats viii secure Us complete
| exemption from parasites, though in all in
| stances in which he has had an opportunity
of examining meats prepared in the way,
and containing parasites, they we're always
/ dead