270 CONTAGIOUS DISEASES OF DOMESTICATED ANIMALS. 



tiou thau lias usually been supposed. American hogs liave usually 

 been examined by microscopists who were competent to do the work 

 and who would not overlook a single case, while in Germany there has 

 been an immense number of insi)ectors employed (18,581 in 1881), many 

 of whom were utterly incompetent. An examination in 1877 showed that 

 many of the microscopes were useless, that glasses used were too dirty 

 to permit the examination, and that some of the ins[)ectors were incapa- 

 ble of detecting the parasite.* E\eu as late as 1881 there were com- 

 plaints iu regard to the incompetency of inspectors, and the continued 

 recurrence of tricbiniasis among people from eating inspected meats 

 demonstrates that these complaints were not made without reason. t 

 Even the German inspections of American meats cannot be taken as a 

 fair comparison with the average of their inspections of indigenous 

 animals, for the reason that our meats are examined in their larger cities 

 and by their most competent inspectors. It is absolutely necessary to- 

 bear these facts iu mind, iu considering the figures which are given as 

 representing the results of the microscopic examination of American 

 and European pork. 



PROPORTION OF AMERICAN HOGS INFECTED WITH TRICHINIASIS. 



The hogs in Dearborn County, Indiana, seem to be infected iu a larger'- 

 proportion than anywhere else in the country, or at least were in 1874. 

 Drs. Harding and Robbins examined 245 animals slaughtered near 

 Lawrenceburg-, and found that 40, or IG^ per cent., contained this para- 

 site. This seems to be far beyond the average, however, even in this- 

 center of infection, for Drs. Gatch and Miller examined 200 animals at 

 the same place and only found 13 infected, or 0.5 per cent.| 



In 1806 Belfield and Atwood are reported to have found 2 per cent, 

 of the hogs slaughtered in Chicago infected, and in 1878 an examination 

 of 100 animals at the same place indicated that 8 per cent, contained 

 trichina'. 



From 1879 to 1881 Dr. F. S. Billings, of Boston, examined 8,773 hogs^ 

 of which 347, or 4 per cent., were rei)orted as containing trichina'. 



Dr. Deveron, of New Orleans, inspected 5,400 hogs in 1881, of which 

 only 22, or 0.4 per cent., were trichinous.§ Of these animals 529 came 

 from Saint Louis, and among them were 18 infected ones, being 3.4 per 

 cent.; 241 came from Louisville, and 2 of these, or 0.83 per cent., con- 

 tained trichina^ ; 484 from unknown parts of the West, had but 2 in- 

 fected, or 0.4 per cent., while the remaining 4,140, mostl,y from the South, 

 were free from this parasite. 



Dr. C. A. Simpson examined 30 hogs at Atlanta, which were mostly 



-Viertel.jabrschrift f. Ger., Med., &c., N. F. XXX, p. 175-181. 

 tLoc. cit. XXXVII, p. 345-351. 



t A Report on Tricbiniasis as observed in Dearborn Co., Indiana, in 1874. By George 

 Sutton, M. D., Aurora, lud. 



§ Report of American Healtb Assoc., vol. 7, p. 136. 



