[151] Report of the State Entomologist, 293 



might be pertinent to the question. The following communication 

 was returned: 



Replying to yours of the tenth of June, we would state that the 

 hams in question are cured in the western part of Ohio, and in a 

 brine made of salt, saltpetre, and sweetened either with sugar or 

 syrup. They are packed fresh from the animal in tierces, the brine 

 poured in and the package closed — the meat being then left to cure, 

 a process requiring from forty to sixty days, although they remain in 

 this condition from one to twelve months. They come east in that 

 shape and are here taken out of pickle as they are wanted, and 

 smoked. The dij^jDing of which you inquire, is never done to packed 

 hams, but only to bagged or canvassed hams; and is done that the 

 coating may protect them from the deposit of eggs by flies. The 

 smoking that we gave them was not to exterminate the pest, but to 

 prepare them for market. It had, however, no effect upon the insect 

 except to make it more easily discernible. The attack seems to be 

 increasing rajjidly, through germination or some other process. 



From the above statement, it seems probable that the mites had 

 their source in the establishment in which they were packed — an 

 infested pork-packing house, as in the instance above cited. As a 

 remedy, simple, inexpensive and probably effectual, recommendation 

 was made to Mr. Wessels of dipping the meat in a weak mixture of 

 carbolic acid and water. Used in the proportion of one part of the 

 acid to 100 parts of water, it would, with scarcely a doubt, destroy the 

 mite, not injure the meat for food, nor would the creosotic odor of 

 the carbolic acid impart a disagreeable smell to it. 



Before venturing to recommend the above wash for a meat which 

 is sometimes partaken of in an uncooked state, the opinion of Dr. 

 Willis Gr. Tucker, the distinguished chemist of the Albany Medical 

 College, was asked, and the following answer received: 



Yours, concerning use of carbolic acid for destroying flour-mites 

 on ham, is at hand. The internal dose of the acid is about one grain 

 (or one drop of the diliquesced crystals) for an adult. In large 

 enough quantity or a sufficiently concentrated state, it is a caustic, 

 escharotic, and violent poison. It must be used with care, and I 

 would suggest the possibility of its affecting the salableness of the 

 hams, for its odor, slightly different from creosote, might prove 

 objectionable. It is soluble in twenty parts of water. A strength 

 of one to 500 is said to instantly destroy vegetable mold, both plant 

 and spores, and to operate with equal destructiveness upon micro- 

 scopic animalcule. Hobbescyler says that all inferior organisms per- 

 ish in a solution of one to 100. It is used at about this strength to 

 kill the itch-insect, body-lice, etc. I would suggest trying a solution 

 of this strength (1 to iOO) or say an ounce to a gallon (1 to 128). If 

 this should be effectual, I do not see how it can hurt the meat, and it 

 certainly would be perfectly safe. If this does not kill the mites, then 

 I would try double the strength. 



