646 



POEK, PROHIBITION OF AMERICAN. 



ease would be communicated to French hogs 

 through eating rats infected by American pork. 

 The Chamber passed by a decided majority a 

 resolution in favor of the continuance of the 

 prohibitive regulation. The Government, in 

 pursuance of this resolution, restored the in- 

 terdiction on Jan. 20, 1884. In 1883 Portugal 

 followed the other Continental countries in ex- 

 cluding American pork. In Austria, Hungary, 

 and Italy, the prohibition was maintained. 



Trichinosis in American Swine. The various 

 expert examinations which have been made 

 under the orders of the Government have re- 

 vealed the fact that a greater or less percent- 

 age of American hogs are affected with trichi- 

 nosis. Prof. Dettmers, who was commissioned 

 by the Agricultural Department to conduct an 

 investigation in Chicago, found among several 

 hundred hogs about 4 per cent, infected, but 

 supposed that researches on a large scale would 

 reduce the proportion to 2 per cent. The per- 

 centage in European countries is said to be 

 much higher. Microscopic examinations of a 

 thorough character had not been made previ- 

 ously to the appointment of the last commis- 

 sion. The investigators consulted the statistics 

 of mortality, and found that the disease was 

 very rarely communicated to human beings in 

 the United States. Dr. J. B. Hamilton re- 

 ported that among 234,353 cases of disease 

 treated by the Marine Hospital Service in ten 

 years, there was not one of trichinosis. In 

 Cincinnati no well-authenticated case of the 

 malady has been known. In the District of 

 Columbia no case is recorded. In Boston, 

 New York, Philadelphia, and Baltimore, among 

 350,072 deaths during the past five years, 

 six resulted from trichinae three in New 

 York and three in Philadelphia. The num- 

 ber of live hogs received in those cities dur- 

 ing that period was 14,701,236, nearly all of 

 which were consumed there. The late Dr. 

 W. C. W. Glazier prepared a report on the 

 natural history of trichina and the pathology 

 of trichinosis, which was transmitted to Con- 

 gress by the Treasury Department in Decem- 

 ber, 1880. He showed that the disease existed 

 in Germany and France in 1830, which was 

 long before it was known in the United States, 

 and before American hog products were ex- 

 ported to Europe. He and the more recent 

 investigators express doubts as to whether any 

 of the cases of trichinosis in France and Ger- 

 many are traceable to the use of American 

 pork. The conclusion is drawn from the fact 

 that the more recent cases in those countries 

 were caused by freshly-killed native pork, that 

 the noxious power of the parasite is destroyed 

 by the processes of salting, smoking, etc., and 

 by the time which elapses before American 

 pork reaches the consumer. Cases which late- 

 ly occurred at Ermersleben were ascribed at 

 first to American pork, but it was proved that 

 they resulted from eating native pig-meat 

 freshly slaughtered. The methods of official 

 inspection can not be applied in rural districts 



to swine slaughtered for local consumption. 

 All the experts agree that trichinosis can only 

 result from uncooked meat. This is denied by 

 German scientists, who assert that, in the or- 

 dinary processes of cooking, the temperature 

 does not rise in the center of a large piece of 

 meat to the point at which life is destroyed. 

 The danger from trichinosis, it is suggested in 

 the reports of the commissions, should so en- 

 lighten the German and other European peo- 

 ples as to induce them to abandon the habit of 

 eating raw pork. None of the reports recom- 

 mend the introduction of a system of govern- 

 ment inspection in the packing-houses. 



Proposed Retaliatory Legislation. It has been 

 suggested, by legislators and by consular offi- 

 cers abroad, that the proper way to meet the 

 restrictions placed on the importation of Amer- 

 ican pig-meat, is to place retaliatory restric- 

 tions on imports from the countries which 

 refuse to receive this American product. It 

 has been proposed to place discretionary power 

 in the hands of the President to impose tem- 

 porary restrictions to meet the case. It has 

 been also suggested that restrictions could be 

 made on similar sanitary grounds. The wines 

 of France, which are notoriously sophisticated, 

 would be almost entirely excluded by a regu- 

 lation allowing none but pure, natural wine 

 to pass the custom-house. The value of French 

 wines imported in 1883 was $5,295,856. 



Pork Production of the United States. Accord- 

 ing to the census, the number of hogs on farms 

 in the United States increased from 25,134,569 

 in 1870, to 47,681, 700 in 1880. The net weight 

 of hogs slaughtered annually is estimated by 

 Mr. J. R. Dodge, statistician of the Agricult- 

 ural Department, at 5,250,000,000 pounds, 

 which is the equivalent of 4,725,000,000 pounds 

 of cured meats and lard. The estimated num- 

 ber of hogs in the United States in 1882 was 

 43,270,086, valued at $291,951,221. Iowa 

 stands first in the raising of hogs, the number 

 on the farms of that State being returned as 

 5,107,445; Illinois coming next with 3,970,- 

 764; Missouri next, with 3,892,920; Indiana 

 next, with 2,724,383 ; Ohio next, with 2,714,- 

 112 ; and then Tennessee, Kansas, Texas, and 

 Kentucky, with nearly 2,000,000 each, equaled 

 in weight and value of the product by Ne- 

 braska and Wisconsin. 



The total number of swine in all countries 

 is estimated at 91,964,000, of which number 

 47 per cent, are in the United States. The 

 number in Germany in 1880 was returned as 

 7,324,000; in Austria- Hungary, 6,995,000; in 

 France, 5,801,000. 



In many States the quantity of pork pro- 

 duced is not sufficient for their own demand. 

 It is estimated that 93 per cent, of the exports 

 of pork and lard consist of the surplus prod- 

 ucts of Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Ken- 

 tucky, Tennessee, Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, 

 Iowa, Minnesota, and Wisconsin. 



The number of hogs packed for commercial 

 purposes during the year ended March 1, 1883, 





