Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-08-18

| does not care what may be the color or social
standing of his host, but he will only take
up his quarters in the muscular tissues. He
does not want any liver or kidney in his; il
| is muscle or nothing. The heart muscle is
choice site with him, as are also the mus.
cles of the eye and those of the chest which
carry on respiration.
After boring round for a considerable time
| in the muscular tissue. the little animal
| finds place which suits his fancy and there
he lodges. His presence excites an infam-
nation, which results in the formation of a
shell, technically called cyst, which in
closes him on all sides.
These cysts, by contraction, finally kill
the inclosed parasite, though unfortunately
while doing so the disturbance created gen.
orally kills the luckless person whose mus
cles the trichina have invaded This en-
cysting process commences abont three
weeks after the infested meat has been
swallowed, and it is on the ability of the
afflicted individual to live till the process is
completed that his only chance of recovery
depends.
AN INTERESTING PROCESS.
1t is during the encysting process that all
the symptoms OF trichinosis, as the disease
is called, are at their fullest intensity.
In the course of time, if the host lives,
lime salts are deposited in and around the
trichin9, making chalky concretion,
which, if the muscle be examined after
death, is often visible to the naked eye as a
minute white speck. The trichina itself,
however, is invisible without the aid of a
microscope.
The parasites do not generate in the mus
cles and only one generation is the result of
one injection. That is, each female swal-
lou tn foI hzr IS
progeny, and then she, herself, dies and the
progeny do not multiply. Thus it is seen
that the number of trichina developed will,
unlike disease germs, be directly in proper
ton to the number swallowed. Thus the
number of trichin@ which invades the mus
cles in any given case, may vary from few
hundreds to many millions. Now it is
Just on these numbers that the severity of the
disease depends. A few hundreds in the
muscles may give rise to what may be, and
frequently is considered as muscular rheu-
matism. From this all grades of the disease
are encountered mp to degree of severity
when the little animals are present in such
enormous numbers as to excite such an in
fammation in every muscle in the patients
system as to render the entire body as stiff
as board; not muscle is capable of volun-
tary movement, and finally the heart and
respiratory muscles are so stifened that
they are unable to work, and then death,
of course, is the result.
In many cases death results from exhaus-
ton. owing to the inability of the patient to
swallow on account of the stiffnessof the in
vaded swallowing muscles. In some cases
the infected meat swallowed sets up kind
of cholera morbus which, though severe, is
apt to be fortunate for the patient, as these
cases rarely have severe muscular troubles,
because there is, in them, usually little
migration.
SOME EXPERIMENTS.
With view of ascertaining to what ex-
tent the various forms of hog meat on the
market are infected with trichine the writer
has, during the past three years, examined
300 samples of ham, bacon, sausage, fresh
pork and pigs feet, all taken from
the market in the cities of New
York, Philadelphia, Chicago, st. Louis,
Cincinnati and Pittsburg.
OF these cities, one was found to be about
as well off as another in regard to the num-
ber of tfichina found, as there was singu-
larly little variation in this respect. The
average OF all samples from all the above
named cities gives the following table
showing the average number found in each
form of pork:
Samples
Ham, trichin1 found in.
Bacon. tr1chin8 found in in... IL 4