TRICHINIASIS OF MAN AND ANIMALS. 



23 



RESUME. 



1879 



1881. Same source.. 

 " Second source, 

 " Third source . . 



Total 



Number of hogs 

 examined. 



2,701 

 2,000 

 2,068 

 2,004 



8,773 



Non-infected. 



154 

 71 

 75 

 45 



345 



Trichinous. 



1 to 17 

 1 to 28 

 1 to 27 

 1 to 44 



1 to 25 



The above figures do not certainly serve to support the words of 

 our state document, that there are " less trichinae in American pork 

 than in that of any other country." They do speak in no uncertain 

 terms that our Government has a duty which it owes to a large 

 national interest, and that is, to spare no expense until the original 

 source whence our swine become invaded be discovered. 



As has been already said, all but about fifty of these eighty- 

 seven hundred hogs were bought at Chicago, hence were Western 

 hogs, though killed and examined at Boston. They were purchased 

 at the same yards whence the Chicago packing-houses get that 

 pork which our State Department declares to be so " free from 

 trichinae." 



Further, the percentage of infection of the hogs from the differ- 

 ent sources is interesting, but not very instructive. In 1879 we 

 had a ratio of infection of 1 to 17 hogs, and from the same place 

 1 to 28 in 1881; while by the hogs from a third source we had an 

 infection of 1 to 44. Yet they were all Western hogs. 



This variation in the ratio of infection between those examined 

 in 1879 and 1881 called forth the following remarks from Dr. Lor- 

 ing, the present Commissioner of Agriculture : 



" A veterinarian of New England informed me on the 14th of 

 April last that he had examined portions from 2,701 Western hogs, 

 obtained in Boston, 154 of which he found infected, i. e., one case 

 to each 17 t 5 q*q- hogs examined. He tells me that he will make a 

 statement to this meeting that he has examined portions of 8,773 

 Western animals, and has found one case to every 25 animals. You 

 will see that there is a great difference between his first {April) ex- 

 amination and this one, and his resxdt is so greatly different from 

 the English examination of our hogs, above mentioned, and so much 

 above any known proportion among animals of every other country, 

 that I can not but entertain doubts of the value of his examina- 

 tion." * 



* See letter to Health Congress, Savannah, 1881. 



