278 CONTAGIOUS DISEASES, OF DOMESTICATED ANIMALS. 



133° R) kills most of them, and that 60° C. (140° F.) is safe. Fied- 

 ler's experiments show that trichina^, are quickly killed at 62.5° C. 

 (144.5° F.) Fjord's investigations show that the interior of a ham 

 weigliing- 8 pounds reaches 65° C. (149° F.) after boiling two hours and 

 seventeen minutes; one weighing 10 poutuls, after three hours and six 

 minutes ; one weighing 14^^ pounds, after four hours and eleven min- 

 utes; and one weighing 10 pounds after four hours and thirty-seven 

 minutes. Vallin found that a ham weighing 12 i^ounds had an interior 

 temperature of 05° C. after three and a half hours' boiling. These re- 

 sults, therefore, correspond verj" closely. Hein* found that a 2.2 pound 

 roast reached a temperature in its interior of 09° C. after one and a half 

 hours. Rupprecht observed that rapidly fried sausage only had an in- 

 terior temperature of 53.5° C, and was still capable of producing in- 

 fection. Colin t had a steak weighing- half a pound boiled for ten min- 

 utes, when its appearance on cutting was white, without any red points. 

 It still contained living trichinae, however, which, being fed to a bird, 

 were afterwards found develoi^ed in the intestine. 



The indications from these experiments are that while fresh meats 

 may not always be cooked sufficiently to kill trichinae, salted meats are 

 almost invariably cooked for more than the necessary time. This con- 

 clusion seems also to be borne out by the experience of people in all 

 parts of the world. Trichiniasis from cooked meats is an exceedingly 

 rare disease. In the United States, where pork in its various forms is 

 consumed to as large an extent as in any part of the world, and where 

 more than one-fourth of the hog product of the world is eaten, it is 

 seldom, indeed, that we hear of any infection among our native popu- 

 lation, because the habit of eating raw meats, particularly when fresh, 

 does not prevail. The few cases which occur from time to time are 

 nearly always among Germans and are traced to the ingestion of pork 

 in some form, which has not been cooked at all. 



In this connection Dr. Brouardel brought out a very interesting fact 

 in his investigation of the epidemic at Ermslebeu. No cases of disease 

 occurred there excef)t with those who ate the -neat raw. The family of 

 Herr Heine, the mayor of Ermsleben, consisting of live persons, con- 

 sumed some of this same meat in the form of sausage on the 15th of Sep- 

 tember. The sausage was cut in pieces about li inches in diameter and 

 was cooked by placing in boiling water for only five minutes. Not one 

 of this family suffered in the least degree, but the cook who ate a small 

 piece of the sausage before it was cooked contracted the disease. Boil- 

 ing for so short a time has never heretofore been considered sufficient 

 to destroy this parasite, and yet in this instance it undoubtedly pro- 

 tected the consumers from the infection. 



At the session of the Paris Academy of Medicine, January 29, 1884^ 

 a report was presented by the special committee appointed to consider 



* C. Hein. Rep. of a case of trichiniasis, with remarks on diagnosis and jiropbylaxis. 

 Mitth. d. Vcr. d. Aev/te in Nied Pest, 1883. 

 to. Colin. Sur les trichines. Bnlletin de I'Acad. de m^d., 1881, '243. 



