California Agriculturist and Live Stock Journal. 



i 



"pork-eaters" is a phrase synonymous 

 with "general public." Dr. Sutton saj's 

 that from microscopic examination of 

 pork killed in southeastern Indiana, from 

 three to sixteen per cent, of the hogs are 

 atteeted with trichina) — the worm caus- 

 ing the disease in man; that over five 

 miihous of hogs are slaughtered and 

 l)acked in the Western States, not includ- 

 ing those which are put up for family 

 use by the farmers. If four per cent, of 

 this pork is diseased, which the report 

 thinks a low estimate, then there are 

 221,481 diseased hogs put annually ui^on 

 the market, in addition to the wormy 

 ones retained by the farmers on which 

 to regale themselves and families. Ninety 

 per cent, of disease produced from eat- 

 ing trichiuous pork appears either as 

 gastro-entcritis (something horrible from 

 its being disguised iu such a name), or 

 as diarrhea and dysentery, and these dis- 

 eases cause a mortality of thousands in 

 the United States every year, and us I 

 shall show hereafter, the sufferings of 

 those who are not privileged to die are 

 horrible from the same cause. 



Now, it is time to come together and 

 see if this horrible slaughter and sufler- 

 ing of human beings cannot be stopjaed, 

 and the first thing is to find out the rea- 

 son and cause, remote aud immediate, of 

 the disease, and then consider the means 

 of removing it. 



In addition to the external paeasites of 

 domestic animals, they are inhabited by 

 internal parrsites, and most of the latter 

 belong to the great class of articulated 

 animals known as worms, constituting 

 several distinct orders, aud it is a re- 

 markable fact that the worst of thes 

 creatures are kept in existence only by 

 reason of the intimate relation existing 

 between man and his brutish dependents. 

 The two most common tapeworms, de- 

 rived rtspectivclyjfrcm the ficsh of cattle 

 and hogs, in which the young worms 

 live, appear to be capable of coming to 

 maturity only in the human intestine, 

 another proof of the fact of our kinship 

 to the brute creation underneath us, and 

 further corroborated by what some may 

 consider the mortifying fact that the in- 

 ternal arrangements, the viscera, omniv- 

 orous propensities, and the general phy- 

 siological structure of the hog (and also 

 the bear) more nearly resemble man than 

 any other animal. 



But i^assing over the pork tapeworm, 

 which is acquired in man by eating raw 

 or underdone pork, aud the beef tape- 

 worm acquired by eating dried beef and 

 bologne sausages, nncooked, and raw 

 meats, and both productive of disease 

 enough to make us satisfied that such 

 diet should be avoided, we come to the 

 causes of the more terrible trouble, the 

 ilcsh-worm, the trichina spiralis, one of 

 the ueiiMlodes or round worm family, and 

 the most important and most dangerous 

 of all hunum parasites. This minute 

 worm iu the hirva- state lives in the mus- 

 cles, not only of swine and his kindred, 

 men and women, but iu those of dogs, 

 cats, rats, mice, guinea pigs, aud many 

 other animals, and in the nuvture state 

 inhabits the intestines of the same ani- 

 nuUs; but it is to be borne in mind, iu 

 view of the remedies proposed for the 

 ilisease the worm gives rise to, that no 

 noxious effects are jn'oduced, except from 

 the eating by the human species of the 

 tlesh of swine in the condition that they 

 are kept by civilized nnin for fattening, 

 selling and eating. Microscopic exam- 

 ination of the muscular tissue of a wild 

 boar lately shot in Saxony, showed it to 

 bo full of triohinic, \)ut no one has ever 

 heard of the "pork distemper" frompar- 

 takiig of the meat iu its wild state, nor 

 Iriim eating any of the other animals 

 subject to the trichina. The young par- 



asites are so small as to be quite invisible 

 to the naked eye, and "millions of them 

 may exist, " says Prof. Verrill, "iu the 

 flesh of a pig without i^roducing any 

 unusual apjiearauce in the meatt suffi- 

 cient to attract the attention even o' an 

 exjiort. " If the pork containiug these 

 worms is eaten by man, they become 

 liberated iujthe stemach, and entering 

 the intestines there grow rajjidly, and 

 become mature in two days. One ounce 

 of pork may contain a quarter of a mil- 

 lion or more of these worms, which, as 

 soon as born, begin to eat and force their 

 way through the membrane of the intes- 

 tines and into the minute blood vessels 

 and other organs, and entering the circu- 

 lation thej- are carried by the blood to 

 the heart, thence to the lungs, and then 

 become diffused through the whole sys- 

 tem, causiug an immense amount of in- 

 flammation and irritation, intense sore- 

 ness and pain, and death in some cases 

 occurs from the fifth to the fiftieth day. 

 It was not until Dr. Zenker, of, Dresden, 

 in lyGO, made the surprising discovery 

 that the trichina, which up till then had 

 been considered a harmless little animal, 

 could cause the death of a man, that 

 these results became known by farther 

 investigation, and that to the swallowing 

 of these "worms that never die" was 

 owing so many fevers, poisoning, and 

 various diseases hitherto ascribed to other 

 causes. Since that time a sei-ies of epi- 

 demics of this disease has occurred in 

 Germany, where they tat more raw pork 

 than elsewhere, aud thousands of cases 

 have been observed, and many dissec- 

 tions have taken place, and the fact es- 

 tablished beyond any doubt as to the 

 cause. Numerous cases have since oc- 

 curred, aud are constantly occurring all 

 over the United States, traced to eating 

 rare done, or raw pork, principally ham, 

 where the muscles which these worms 

 inhabit iu their larvie state are most nu- 

 merous; sausages, occasionally roast 

 pork, aud pork that had been boiled an 

 hour or two, although it is supposed that 

 a trichina, exposed to the boiling jjoint, 

 will die; but it is rarely that the whole of 

 the meat cooked is exjiosed to this tem- 

 perature, the inner parts not unfrequent- 

 ly coming ou to the table half or wholly 

 under-done. Exjieriments have shown 

 that a large piece of meat which had 

 been put into a kettle over a good fire, 

 after boiling half an hour, had cooked 

 only partly through, and had to be cut 

 up and cooked as long again, to reach 

 a temperature sufficient to kill the tri- 

 china^. 



When we realize that many thousand 

 people, according to Dr. Sutton's esti- 

 mate, die annually in the United States 

 from trichinosis, and perhaps as many 

 more are suffering horribly — almost a 

 daily death — from distempers eugeudered 

 by the same cause, it is a matter of mo- 

 ment to us farmers who produce and 

 distribute, and eat, and bring uji our 

 families on jjork, to see if something 

 \ cannot be done to prevent such dreadful 

 efl'ects. 



Of course, after these facts become 

 known, no sane person will eat pork or 

 moat of any kind unless it is thoroughly 

 cooked; uo dried or smoked beef, or 

 ham, which has uot been purified by 

 fire (infants fed upon dried beef, a cus- 

 tom in vogue iu Kussia, being especially 

 liable to be infested by tapeworms, and 

 probably trichinae); but we nuist go 

 beyond this to strike at the seat of the 

 disease. 



It is evident, as before stated, that 

 this disease, so fatal and horrible iu all 

 its aspects, is comnmnicatcd from those 

 l)enned together in filth, aud fed ou of- 

 fal, often of the very wiu'st nature, such 

 I as that of diseased animals, and other 



matter too villainous to mention. The 

 hog is naturally a clean animal, and in 

 his native state will be as free from dis- 

 ease as cattle; and we have no evidence 

 of tba trichiuous disease ever infecting 

 ony person from eating of wild boars, 

 nor of the herds of swine kept in ancient 

 times, even in hot countries, nor of pork 

 from pigs kept in a cleanly condition, and 

 not shut up in close aud filthy quarters 

 with others. In fact, the diseases of the 

 hog are bred from the dirt, wet, tilth and 

 bad air to which he is forced. Like any 

 other "gentleman" who is put iu close 

 quarters, deprived of proper food and 

 raiment, with no chance to bathe, aud 

 crowded upon by other prisoners as bad 

 oft' as himself, he soon becomes disgust- 

 ing; the internal and external parasites 

 prey upon him, sores aud diseases break 

 out, aud he communicates these to those 

 other unhappy ones with whom he comes 

 in contact. There are said to be up- 

 wards of a hundred species of internal 

 jiarasitic worms found in domestic ani- 

 mals aud man, but they are kept iu their 

 proper place b^^ the general health aud 

 cleanliness of their luibilah; but let the 

 latter neglect these precautions, aud the 

 same results follow as to the vegetable 

 creation — the apple and other fruit trees 

 — whose parasites take adv! utage of any 

 neglect of growth or cleanliness to de- 

 stroy them. 



The tekotina in human flesh (for it 

 occurs both iu pork and in human mus- 

 cle) is a very minute spirally coiled 

 worm, scarcely visible to the naked eye, 

 aud either enclosed in a cyst, or unen- 

 cysted. If a piece of pork containing 

 these worms be consumed by man, these 

 larva? develop in the course of two days 

 into sexually mature worms, and in four 

 days more, numerous embryos are given 

 oft'; these being small aud vigorous 

 worms, attack aud bore through the in- 

 testines, passing into various parts of the 

 body of their host. Chiefly, however, 

 they lodge in the voluntary muscles, 

 there to perish by the natural process of 

 conversion into little limy particles, un- 

 less, indeed, cannibalistic ideas should 

 come into vogue. 



The disease set up by these parasites 

 iu boring their way into all parts of t'he 

 body is called trichinosis, or trichiniasis. 

 The symptoms of this are prostration 

 and general indisposition, which stage 

 may last about a week, followed by pain 

 in the limbs, swelling of the face, aud 

 fever. This shows that the trichina are 

 making their way into the various mus- 

 cles. About the fourth week, the para- 

 sites may be regarded as settled iu their 

 new home; aud the third stage, which is 

 characterized by extreme weakness, su- 

 pervenes. The general indications in 

 the way of treatment are active purga- 

 tion at"first, followed by all means calcu- 

 lated to support the strength of the p.a- 

 tieut. 



(-^ 



cmc. 



PRACTICAU .HEALTH TOPICS- 

 NO. 5. 



BY "JEWELL. 



.'?. 



EPKKCISK. 

 ijNK of the most noci-asary habits 

 Irrl conducive to health is exercise. By 

 kf/- it th blood is sent to the extremi- 

 ties, and a healthful glow is felt 

 from heart to finger-tips, cheeks 

 and lips show their welcome iu rosy col- 

 oring, and the step is made elastic by its 

 magic- power. Even the woman of soci- 



ety is beginning to understand its raagic 

 effects, aud while she spurns worl.; she 

 will nevertheless go to the gymnasium, 

 "lift cure," or bathing establishment, 

 there to sti;eat, or exercise iu the fashion- 

 able way to gain the beauty of complex- 

 ion her inactive life destroys. 



I read an interesting account of a lady 

 of wealth, whose complexion was ruined 

 by dissipation, taking a subordinate po- 

 sition in a Turkish bath house where.by 

 constant exercise and sweating, she 

 gained a beauty of skin envied by her 

 "circle" without the disgrace of labor be- 

 coming known. 



And right here I would ask whether we 

 do not make too great a distinction be- 

 tween work aud exercise? As educated 

 men aud women, feeling the beauty of 

 harmony in life, do we not, by our ac- 

 tions, degrade labor — shunning the la- 

 borer, and not seeking the toiling ones, 

 while the idle and rich are courted and 

 sought for? As jjareuts, do we not give 

 or boys professions, rather than trades, if 

 we can afford it? aud our girls accomp- 

 lishments to fit them to adorn homes, 

 rather than to cheer and make them what 

 they ought to be? I would not advocate 

 constant labor, excluding rest and recre- 

 ation. Were all to contribute sufficient 

 for their health, we would not see so 

 many over-worked ones and a corres- 

 ponding number of under-worked inva- 

 lids for the want of something to do to 

 give them sufldcieut exercise to keep 

 well. 



Think of the amount of strength wast- 

 ed at these "lift cures" and gymnasiums, 

 which, if rightly used, would benefit 

 mankind immensely. Yet it is better 

 for those leading sedentary lives to take 

 such physical exercise than none at all. 

 Business or home duties should provide 

 the exercise daily needed. Our children 

 should be encouraged to use their limbs 

 in active sports, and be provitled with 

 the means of so doing. Our schools 

 should contain apparatus, in a big room, 

 to amuse and give exercise, under in- 

 struction, to pupils of both sexes, in wet 

 weather, when out-door games are i*i- 

 possible. We should all be educated 

 into the idea that it is a duty we owe 

 ourselves to exercise daily sufticiently, 

 and iu such a manner as to best develop 

 aud preserve good health, aud that it is 

 honorable to be usefully employed while 

 exercising. Labor should not bo drudg- 

 ery, nor exercise idleness. Exorcise for 

 health, and health will give a zest to use- 

 ful employments. 



1 



How Faemeks' Wives Beeak Down. 

 A woman tells this story to the Boston 

 Cidiii-ator, and many can testify of their 

 own knowledge that it is sadly true: 



She has four little girls -the oldest six 

 years and the youngest three months. 

 Her husband keeps six cows, and culti- 

 vates a farm of a huudred acres, employ- 

 ing two men to aid him. Three meals 

 must be cooked daily for a family of 

 seven, not c<rantiiig the baby, four chil- 

 dren dressed aud cared for; the milk of 

 six cows attended to, and butter made 

 while the weekly washing and ironing 

 must be accomplished iu some way. 

 From four o'clock in the morning till 

 ten aud sometimes eleven at uight, one 

 pair of hands and one pair of feet to jier- 

 form this labor, aud now that tired body 

 rebels and says: "This cannot be en- 

 dured." 



Let me tell you of another case: 'J' hr 

 farmer and his wife have three childm. 

 all under eight years. Ho employs !»■■ 

 hired men, boarding them, and ke<ii. 

 eleven cows. A woman comes iu to W' 

 the washing aud ironing, but that is all 

 the assistance the wife receives, excrpt 

 the few stejis her children save her. She 



