EDITORIAL OBSERVATIONS. 6l9 
some effect, for children were much less severely attacked 
than adults, which is contrary to what might have been ex¬ 
pected. The trichinae are very minute round worms coiled 
up in cells, which pass through their first stage of develop¬ 
ment in the pig, but do not arrive at maturity until the pork 
containing them has been eaten by a human being. Thorough 
cooking will kill them, but when the pork is eaten under¬ 
cooked they often cause death. The cooking of the sausages 
probably had some effect in preventing the Thaxted cases 
ending fatally, but no little credit is due to the treatment 
pursued by Mr. Watson and Mr. Sunderland, which was 
directed to killing the worms and preventing them entering 
the system. In former outbreaks reported the results varied 
greatly. In some the patients all recovered in about a 
month, and in others fifty per cent, died, and others con¬ 
tinued ill for about three or four months. The severity 
appears to depend first on the number of trichinae swallowed 
alive, and secondly on whether they remain long enough to 
deposit their eggs, which they can do at the enormous rate 
of from 300 to 500 at a time. The diseased bits in the 
sausages had evidently been salted, and the sausage maker 
has, on further inquiry, acknowledged that the pork was not 
all fresh, but some had been in pickle, and was of two or 
more kinds. If, as is probable, the salted diseased pork was 
foreign, the outbreak could be easily accounted for. Trichinae 
have been frequently found in pork sent from America, and 
a question was asked about it by the Earl of Belmore, in the 
House of Lords, on May 29th last, to which the Duke of 
Richmond replied that he had caused an examination to be 
made by officers of the Veterinary Department of swine which 
had been landed at Liverpool, and he regretted to say that, 
trichinosis was discovered in some animals, but that the 
swine coming from abroad were slaughtered at the port of 
landing. He further stated that the question enabled him 
to caution the public, and to say that the best way of pre¬ 
venting the spread of this disease, so dire in j*s results to 
the human species, was by thorough cooking of nams, bacon, 
and all forms of meat of the pig. The German trichinosis 
statistics which were published for 1876 showed one case in 
every 2000 pigs examined. The statistics for 1877 showed 
one case in every 2800 examined; 343 of the cases in 1877 
were discovered in American pork and bacon imported into 
Germany. Although the pork known to be diseased would 
not be eaten, there were 138 known cases of trichinosis 
among human beings reported to have occurred in that year. 
The Government of Portugal have, it is reported, issued a 
li i. 46 
