322 READINGS IN BIOLOGICAL SCIENCE 



the scrutiny of inspectors, according to methods which are known to in- 

 sure a sufficiently high temperature to destroy in all parts of the meat the 

 vitahty of any trichinae that may be present. For all products which are 

 not cooked or heated to a sufficiently high temperature, but which are 

 nevertheless intended to be eaten by the consumer without cooking, various 

 alternative methods of preparation are prescribed, such as prolonged freez- 

 ing at low temperatures, or curing, smoking and drying in accordance with 

 methods that are known to insure the destruction of life in all trichinae 

 present. As already stated, for fresh pork and ordinary varieties of cured 

 pork, there is no inspection or required treatment for reasons already given. 

 Some persons, upon discovering that between i and 2 per cent, of hogs 

 in this country contain trichinae, and that these parasites are dangerous to 

 human health, conclude that all pork, no matter how prepared, is dan- 

 gerous. Such a conclusion is unsound and unwarranted. There is no danger 

 whatsoever of acquiring trichinosis or any other parasitic disease from thor- 

 oughly cooked pork. Cooking of pork is a health safeguard and is com- 

 parable to the pasteurization of milk, the chlorination of drinking water 

 and similar hygienic measures that have been adopted the world over to 

 protect human health. If one concludes that there is something wrong with 

 pork because it must be cooked to make it safe, to be consistent such a per- 

 son would also have to conclude that there must be something wrong 

 with milk because it is commonly pasteurized. As is well known to hy- 

 gienists, cooking is the greatest health safeguard; the facts presented in this 

 paper confirm this generalization. 



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DEGENERATIVE DISEASE * 

 KARL B. MICKEY 



It is difficult to realize that less than three generations of human life have 

 passed since Pasteur discovered the bacterial causation of disease. That 

 knowledge so profoundly influences our attitude toward the world we live 

 in, that we tend unconsciously to think of it as having always been a part 

 of the intellectual equipment of civilized peoples. 



Of course, the scientific approach to human disease antedated Pasteur. 

 Hippocrates, in Greece in the fifth century before Christ; Galen in Italy 

 in the second century of the Christian era; Harvey, in seventeenth century 

 England — these are but three of the most illustrious of those who, within 

 historical times, attempted by exact observation and reasoning to dispel 

 the demonism and crude ignorance which pervaded the practice of medi- 

 cine. However, it was not until the young French scientist, from his study 



* Reprinted from Health Froiii the Grotmd Up by Karl B. Mickey with the per- 

 mission of the International Harvester Company, 1946. 



