TRICHINAE. 
13 
favorable hygienic conditions, are so much more infected with 
trichinae than those of Germany, which are nearly all penned, 
and often given the contents of the out-house to root over. 
It is well known that trichinae have been found among the 
wild swine of Europe. 
It would be interesting to know the facts, in this regard, as to 
our own wild swine of the southern and western States, as well 
as the peccaries of Mexico and Central America. 
The census of 1870 gives the number of swine in the United 
States as 25,134,569 ; if 6 per cent, of this number are infected, 
then we have at present the enormous number of one million, 
five hundred and eight thousand, and seventy-four (1,508,074) 
swine in this country, the consumption of which for food is fraught 
witli serious danger to mankind. 
The following freely translated extract is taken from remarks 
“ on the trichinae in American pork,” by Professor Bollinger, of 
the Koval Veterinary Institute, Munich, Bavaria, from the 
“ Deutsche Zeitshift fur Thiermedicin,” vol. 1, p. 220, the same 
being a notice of a paper on the subject by Dr. Roepcr in the 
“ Deutsche Vierteljahrssehrift f. Aeffent. Gesundheitspflege.” 
“ The author of the paper ‘ Die Trichinae der Amerikanischen 
Schinken, , has made numerous investigations in order to contra¬ 
dict the opinion held in America, that the trichinae of American 
pork are an entirely different species from those found in the 
swine of Germany, and are harmless. (We should like to know 
where the author got that idea ?) Also to contradict the opinion 
that the peculiar processes which c American sugar-cured hams ’ 
are passed through is sufficient to render parasites harmless.” 
The author first demonstrated by carefully executed micros¬ 
copic examinations and measurements, that the American trichinae 
correspond with those found in Germany, in form, structure and 
size. Two feeding experiments with the same upon rabbits 
proved negative, however. But this evidence is sufficiently coun¬ 
terbalanced by the tricliinse-epidemic in Bremen, where from the 
consumption of American pork numerous persons (40) became 
sick. 
