CONTAGIOUS DISEASES OF DOMESTICATED ANIMALS. 277 



"The workmen, after the arrival of the Paris savants, took pleasure in eating the 

 pieces themselves that were pronounced trichinous, so certain were they of their per- 

 fect harmlessness. And neither during the stay of these gentlemen at Havre nor 

 afterwards was there a single case of disease, or even a simple indisposition. 



" In th6 second place, I would remark that during this period of fifteen years we have 

 had no serious epidemic of typhoid fever. That of 1880-1881, the only one at all serious 

 which has occurred in our city, aftected the quarters occupied by the well-to-do or 

 rich people, while the quarters where the American meat was consumed suffered very 

 little. There was then no possibility of an error on the i^art of the physicians, even 

 if such a gross error could have been committed. 



"It follows, fi'om the facts that I have just related, that the salting of American pork 

 is sufficient to kill the trichime ; and if, in addition to this cause of security which has 

 been experimented upon by the workmen of Havre for fifteen years, we add the cook- 

 ing, as it is practiced everywhere in France, the conclusion is foiced upon every one 

 not prejudiced in advance that American salted meats are absolutely incapble of 

 producing trichiniasis in the consumers." 



the same discussion M, Leblauc said : 



The discussion appears to me exhausted ; however, I ask permission of the academy 

 to communicate in support of the note of Dr. Gibert the following observation. It 

 was furnished to me by the principal meat inspector of Paris : 



The veterinarians under his direction examined during six mouths in 1881 5,000 

 kilograms (11,000 pounds) of American salted meat per day. Sixty ihousand kilo- 

 grams were seized as trichinous, aud a large part was shii^ped to England. During 

 these six months the emjdoycs and draymen of the dealers in salted meats who came 

 to the station of Batignolles ate meat in presence of the inspectors which was noto- 

 riously infected with trichin;e. Not one of them became sick. 



One of these, M. R., employed by Caiman, 11 Eue Bergere, was accustomed to this, 

 and took pleasure in eating the parts of the pork in which the microscope had demon- 

 strated the presence of trichina^. To-day, after three years, he is well; more than 

 this, having been received at Beaujou as a patient of our colleague M. Tillaux, for a 

 fractured arm, and having related his bravado, lie was the subject of a special exam- 

 ination; his muscular tissue was recognized to be healthy, and no trichinje could be 

 found in it.* 



EFFECT OF COOKING ON TRICHINA. 



If the trichiupe of American pork are destroyed by the curing pro- 

 cess in a time much shorter than is necessary for such meats to be 

 shijjped from our i^ackers to any of the consumers in Europe, it may 

 seem superfluous to go into a consideration of the effect of cooking, aud 

 yet it is not wholly so. Under certain conditions it would appear that 

 the trichina? do resist the curing process for a considerable time; and 

 though these coiulitions occur so seldom that uninspected salted meats 

 are much safer than inspected fresh ones, it is still worth our while to 

 inquire if perfect safety against infection cannot be guaranteed where 

 a reasonable de^iree of cooking is practiced. 



There is some conflict of opinion as to the temperature necessary to 

 destroy trichime, and yet the results of experiments do not differ so 

 widely. Vallint concluded that a temperature of 54° to 56° C. (129 to 



* Bulletin de I'Acad^mi^ de Mddecine, 1884, No. 6 (February 5), pages 241 and 247. 

 t E. Vallin. De la resistance des trichines a la chaleur et de la temp»^rature cen- 

 trale des viandes propar^es. Kev. d'hyg., Paris, 1881, III, 177-182. 



