Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1881-11-30
j. H. ESTILL, PROPRIETOR.

SpIenlc 1eUer and other forms of antheacoid
disease are OF great interest to MS because thew
may be communicated by incubation or bv the
eaten meat. and also because the Texas cattle
lever oears suspicious relation thereto. so
that Il Is called by some good authorities a
i splentc fever or anthracoid disease
| While the most fatal and pronounced form
i OF splenlc fever is more common among for
elgn cattle than with us, these allied forms are
/ TO be closely studied and guarded in tbs
/ Interests OF public health. Ali cattle now com
/ Ing from America are closely watched for Texas
i FEVER Recently we saw some cases In the
/ yards a. Birkenheed, which were feared to he
/ OF this or some other splenic variety
There Is no cOntagion more dreaded than
| that OF these anthracOid diseases
| In France the disease as it affects sheen ia a
loss, we ara told by Pasteur, OF twenty million
of francs or four million OF dollars.anpuelIv'
Our losses by the Texas cattle disease have
/ been large enough to lead to close inquiry and
the production or sale Of such meat comes ipn-
/ tartan
| Within the present month it has been NV
/ duty to exercise watehful oversight OF a local
/ lied outbreak OF anthrax. Ten cows three
/ horses. three sheep, one hog and
several pigs have died as II infused with
virulent poison, and post mOrtems have indi-
i Gated the splenic character Of the outbreak
The swine perished within forty-eight hours
after having gotten a taste Of one of the
/ lungs. aud bull which had broken into the
i pasturage died in three days. A farmer who
i assisted in a post mortem. and whose hand
/ had no abraded surface had swelling OF arm
and other symptoms which required medical
4 care.
The swine disease known as pneumo-en-
terits; swine plague or hog cholera has pre-
losses by it have been enormous.
THE SWINE.
The special report. No. 12, of the United
| States Department OF Agriculture 1879, refers
| to a tabular statement for 1877 of the losses of
farm animals, chiefly from infectious and con-
/ fQplOua diseases The IL fai ar
| si6653,42S. About two-thirds OF this sum was
| Occasioned by the loss of swine by diseases
presumed to be of an infectious or contagious
| character.
This particular disease continues to prevail
| in many parts Of the country, and is far more
| common than in Great Britain or on the CONT
| nent of Europe. Yet Fleming in his Veteri-
| IdTy Journal for September. 1881, speaks II it
| as "an inoculable disease, due to a particular
| germ, which in Europe and America threatens
| TO ultimately exterminate the pOrcine species"
Because it does not produce lch a disease
| as trichinosis, its effects upon the quality OF
| food supply mast lot be overlooked.
| The immense losses not only affect the DOOR
| er classes by causing higher prices, which
means diminished supply Of meat but fur
nishes great quantity of meat Of inferior if
| not Of diseased quality. There have been
| cases of sickness from pork that have not been
| caused by trichin8 The new nematode found
| in the boy who was thought to have died of
| trichinR on board the ship Cornwall (see report
of Mr.. Powers and DR.. Bastian, local govern
| ment board, 1879. has been already alluded to-
Ballard aud Klein have recently reported an
acute specific disease produced by eating pork
| infected with species of baciilas in two series
Of cases (see State Med. Sec, meeting Med
Congress, 1SS1), the pork being claimed to have
come from America The disease might b.
called pneuIno-enter1tis, as both LESSONS we're
found.
Prof. Tidy, chemist of London Hospital. in
some recent researches as to poisoning from
ca ing pork sausages, thinks he has shown an
alkOloid body and some chemical changes to
have caused the sickness. Meat of diseased
animals putrefies more readily and shows
tendency To a septic condition which the juices
of the stomach are not always able to arrest
| Cases Of meat poisoning that are not specific
in any known sense are multiplying.
| There is very great temptation in the case of
small animals, ike swine, when a disease
break out among them, 10 hasten them into
| the potted meat can, the sausage machine, OF
the salt PORK barrel ANY disease so exten-
sive in its rayages, and so deadly in its type
must be carefully studied by the sanisarian as
a guardian OF the public health.
To the disease known as trichinosis we need
to turn especial attention, because OF its dire
full results. its real existence, and the interdic-
lion it has caused to our own great pork trade
in almost every foreign country.
Ii is not n cessary here that we sift all the
historical and political facts which have to do
with this trade interruption Enough is real
to justify serious attention, and enough false
or accepted on insufficient evidence to aston
ish us that countries which have long been the
recognized producers of cases of the disease
should all aG once have seemed to assume that
II.
Neither is there need that we fully trace the
disease and its results, since this has been so
. often and ably done, and because the mono
= graph by our fellow member, the lamented
! Surgeon W. c.. ". Glazier, of the Hospital
Marine Service, has so fully presented it.
We think h and others show that its occur
renee here in proportion to the number Of our
people and ourimmense number OF swine is not
/ equal TO that of other countries. This nema-
tode was first discovered in Guys Hospital,
London. in 1879 and up to 1888, inclusive, nine
| ca had found among hCSntai natieUts
in that city, one in Bristol, England, and six in
Ireland In 1913 the triehinae was observed
in Denmark, and not long after in Germany II
is 10 be remembered that all these cases, as
also the monograph Of Luckhart and the paper
Of Zenker. as well as most Of the observations
of VirchOg, antedate the record OF any fatal
case in the United States. The first series of
American cases are those alluded TO by Vir-
, chow as having occurred in Davenport, Iowa,
in 1886. in a German family. The mother re-
turned to Germany in 1861 and died in 1854 in a
German hospital
In her breast which mad been extirpated for
cancer, encapsulated trichinR we're found. Be
fore this the disease had become well-known in
Great Britain and Europe, and perchance the
German woman was a host OF the cyst on her
first arrival here.
The report OF DIR. ]. L. W. Thudicum on the
parasitic diseases of quadrupeds used for food
Ia the report of the Medical Officer OF the Privy
| Council, 1864. covers the history up to that
| time The list of Dr. Glazer of trichinosiS
| epidemics in Europe since 1870 Opp $3.50, and
that of cases in the United States reaching to
1850 page 172). completes the records and shows
how great portion OF the aggregate has oc-
CURED in other countries. His list of epidemcs
in Europe since 1860 comprises about 100
epidemics, with 3.o44 eases and IL places
where no number is given. Allowing, &C
cording to Meissner, cases each Tor places
where no number is given, the whole numbers
will reach 3.09j, with Z3l deaths, making total
| of about $50 epidemics, 3,SOO cases, 25l deaths,
and 200 cases and so deaths not in the list.
| See p. 81, 5Iazier.
A similar record as to the United States up
| ar,f7a
with a cases (s few cases number not KNOWN
| and 26 deaths. While neither reckoning shows
absolutely the relative degree OF the disease.
vet it does indicate that we are 70 look abroad
for its greatest prevalence. But. as it appears
that only one-fourth OF those eating the feSh
| from trichinOsed hog are affected with trichi-
| nosis." " and, as PagenstecheF says five per
| cent of the cadavers in Berlin hospital contain
trichiuse " and, as the disease is well proven to
| exist here. We cannot be too diigent in pre-
| IL Is in foreign countries. All the more because
of our immense production, and or the de
mands OF home and foreign health. The last
census gives the aggregate of swine at 1885,
62I, which includes only those kept by persons
| I am aware that large statements come to us
| (such as one not long since from Lyons, in
! France. and another from Boston, in the United
4 States which would indicate a much greater
prevalence OF .trichnosed pork than is gene
rally supposed.
lighted upon a special run OF the disease.
| But have also learned that the observation
| of microscoplsts, ike those OF clinicians, are
II not always correct; that their experiments,
| ike our experience. although honest, may have
source. Of error, and that the cautions given
| bv Surgeon Stersb berg on page or his excel
lent preface to his Translation OF Magnln
Brochure on the Bacteris," are TO be observed
as closely as what is seen under the micro
sc pc. -,
The French DEGREES OF February last, the
action of the English Government, and that OF
some States on the continent, led our own gov
ernment 10 an investigation which needs 20 De
| more exact and extended, but which, never
| theIeSs shows that the prohibition OF lmporta-
| ton was not well advised
| While there is still kind or restrictive leglS-
| lation which IS unwiSs. yet We believe there Is
| more OF disposition 10 get at the precise racts
in a more authentic way, and 70 regulate com
merce on the basis thereof. In this connection
| / submit q brief extract from q debate IN the
| House of Lords on May 16, of the present year,
| A summary in the New York Times OF Septem-
Der IA 1881, based on the testim my OF Consul
| Mason OF Basle, to our government, and
| communication from DR., Lyman, veterinarian
| of the United States Department or Agrlcui-
| ture OF date October 29 1851, IN answer 70 Ger
tain questions had asked
| (a) In the Hou ie OF Lords, May TO- OF the
pres mt year, Lord Stanley, of Alderly, asked
| Her Majsssyis Government whether they would
| prohibit the importatiOns (alludlng 20 pork OF
which large proportion were infected Win
trichinae and bacilli; also, OF such oleomarga,
rine or butteribe as contained the grease OF
| pigs suffering from the new disease OF swine az
t,hicago ana the fat of horses infected with dis
| essa or such as was adulterated with soap
| stone The Marquis OF Huntiey SAID ne eouio
/ -s-,ra the noble Lord that there was no eSta0-