PHYSICS AND NATURAL HISTORY OF GENEVA. 205 



to tlic extent of gluing the intestines together to a coherent mass. They next 

 proceed to the muscles nearest to the abdomen ; arrived at the elementary 

 muscular fibres, which, under the microscope, appear as long cylinders with 

 many transverse striae, they pierce the membranes, enter the fibres, cat and 

 destroy their striated contents, consume a great part of the granular detritiis, 

 moving up and down in the fibres until grown to the size necessary for passing 

 into the (juiescent state. They then roll up in spiral or other irregular windings, 

 the bags of the muscular fibres collapse, and only where the trichinae lie a cal- 

 careous matter is deposited, perhaps by the trichin;i3 themselves, which hardens 

 into perfect capsules round the parasites. A muscular fibre may harbor one or 

 several parasites ; but every fibre invaded by a single parasite loses its character 

 entirely, and becomes a bag of detritus from one end to the other. 



If it b(^ remembered that one ounce of meat filled with trichina; may form the 

 Btock from which in a i'cw days three millions of worms may be bred, and that 

 these worms will destroy in the course of a few weeks not less than two millions 

 of striated muscular fibres, an idea of the extent of destruction produced by 

 these ]iarasites can be formed. We arc not in a position to say to what propor- 

 tion of the fifty or sixty pounds of muscle required for the performances of the 

 human body these two millions of elementary fibres actually amount. In the 

 muscles nearest to the abdomen the destruction is sometimes so complete that 

 not a fibre free from parasites can be found. This amounts to comj)lete 

 paralysis. But death is not always produced by the paralysis; it is mos:ly 

 the result of paralysis, peritonitis, and irritative fever combined. No case is 

 known in which trichiniasis, after having d(;clared itself, became arrested. All 

 persons afi'ected have either died, or are in such a state of prostration that their 

 death is very ]»robable. 



M(»st educated peo])le in Germany have, in consequence of the Ilettstadt 

 tragedy, adopted the law of Closes, and avoid pork in any form. To some of 

 the large |)ig-breeders in Westphalia, who keep as many as two thousand pigs, 

 the falling of the price of pork has been a ruinous^at the least a serious — loss. 

 In the diuing-rooius of the hotels in the neiirhborhood of Hettstiidt notices are 

 hung up announcing that pork will not be served in any form in these estab- 

 lishments. To counteract this panic, the farmers' club of the Ilettstadt district 

 gave a dinner, at which no other meat but pork was eaten. But it has had no 

 appreciable effect. U'he raw ham and sausages of Germany are doomed to 

 extinction ; the smoked and fried sausages must necessai'ily be avoided. * * 

 In the south of Germany some people now say that it is the Hungarian pigs 

 which arc most frequently affected with trichina;. This rumor, like the famous 

 pork dinner of the farmers' club, may, however, have been setup with the inten- 

 tion of quieting apprehension about tlie native pigs. We have already mentioned 

 the accident which befell the crew of a merchant vessel. They shipped a pig 

 at Valparaiso, and killed it a few days before their arrival at Hamburg. Most 

 of the sailors ate of the pork in one form or another. Several were affected 

 with trichina; and died. Of those whose fate could be inquired into, only one 

 seems to have escaped the parasites. Another outbreak in Saxony has carried 

 away twelve persons. A fourth wholesale poisoning by trichina; is just repoited 

 from OiYenbach, the Birmingham of Hesse-Darmstadt. Of njtwards of twenty 

 jiersons infected, three h.ul already died when our corrcs[)<)ndent's letter left. 

 Numerous sporadic cases of fever, and epidemics of inscrutable peculiarity, but 

 referred to an anomalous type of fever, are now claimed by medical authors, 

 and with much show of reason, to' have been outbreaks of trichiniasis, or fiesh- 

 worm disease. Several German physicians experimentalized with a view of 

 finding a cure for this terrible disorder. Professor Eckhardt at Giessen, we 

 are told, has obtained permission to try the disease and sup})osed remedies 

 upon a murderer under sentence of death. We have not been told whether his 

 reward in case of success is to "be a commutation of his capital sentence, but 



