TRICHINA SPTEALIS. 



345 



mintliologists to further inquiry, but it also led to the detection of 

 the existence of a new form of disease, which appears to be more 

 prevalent in Glermany than in any other country.* This fact is, of 

 course, easily explained by the circumstance that the otherwise 

 abstemious inhabitants of the '* Fatherland " display a remarkable 

 fondness for chopped raw pork. The Trichina disease, in fact, is 

 endemic in those localities where trichinous flesh is eaten ; and, 

 notwithstanding the warnings of scientific men, seconded by the 

 (it is to be feared, little respected) sanatory commissioners, the 

 people seem to persevere in their habits of devouring uncooked 

 meat. In proof of the correctness of what I am now stating, I 

 will quote a few records from certain Hanoverian and other German 

 newspapers, which have recently been placed in my hands. Thus, 

 in the "Leipsiger Zeitung" for December 8, 1863, I find it stated 

 that the Trichina disease has just broken out there. " Six persons 

 have fallen ill after eating raw beef mixed with chopped pork. All 

 of them are workmen and workwomen of a printing-office." Again, 

 the "ISTeue Hannoversche Zeitung" for December 13, 1863, has 

 the following : — " The death of twenty-one persons in Hettstadt 

 has been caused by the flesh of an English pig, which was reared 

 on a neighbouring estate, together with others ; nothing remarkable 

 [in their behaviour] being noticed. Persons qualified to judge 

 affirm that the Trichina appears in pigs of all races, and that since 

 cooking does not always kill the worm, it is necessary, whenever a 

 pig is killed, to examine the meat through a microscope. The 

 signs of this disease in the animal are [said to be] loss of appetite, 

 a hoarse voice, quietness, and aversion to all kinds of movement 

 or running, [the latter function, when attempted, being attended 

 with] dragging of the extremities. The pig in question, however, 



* The development of the Trichina disease is not, of course, confined to any par- 

 ticular country, people, or clime. It is, doubtless, tolerably frequent in the pork- 

 eating people of America, though its existence, as a febrile malady, has hitherto been 

 overlooked. In the Bibliography of this work, I have given reference to no less than 

 four cases of Trichina spiralis recorded by Dr. H. J. Bowditch in the pages of the " Boston 

 Medical and Surgical Journal." — T. S. C. 



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