TRICHINAE. 
285 
The resemblance of the symptoms in both the lethal and 
milder forms with those of simple inflammation of the intestines, 
is of great moment in considering the disease in man, and have 
also been produced experimentally in the dog. Many cases which 
have in America been looked upon as dysentery, may have been 
mistaken for trichjniasis. 
This is rendered still more probable from the fact that from 
microscopic investigations of thousands of swine slaughtered in 
Indiana three to sixteen per cent, of the same were found having 
this disease.* 
The Western States are mostly intended in pork raising, and 
some five million swine are yearly slaughtered there, the flesh 
being one of the chief supports of the people. If four per cent, 
of these animals are trichinous, that would be twenty thousand 
infected swine slaughtered yearly, and we can easily see how 
many hundred human beings could possibly become diseased and 
escape notice, as in ninety out of every one hundred cases the in¬ 
testinal phenomena generally predominate ( Lancet , Yol. II, 24, 
1875). 
“ Our readers will be shocked to learn that another case of 
trichinosis has appeared in this vicinity, death resulting from the 
disease. The subject was a Mrs. Hamer, who was treated by Dr. 
Dunning of West Webster. The case appeared mysterious and 
baffled all treatment. A sister of Mrs. H. was also taken sick 
with symptoms of similar character. An investigation of por¬ 
tions of the muscles of the lady that died demonstrated the pres¬ 
ence of immense numbers of trichinae.”—(.Rochester, N.Y., Dem¬ 
ocrat, May 1, 1879.) 
Cases have also been reported in the annals of the Michigan 
State Board of Health at Otsego, Detroit, Fort Huron and other 
places, many of which ended fatally. 
* It would be very valuable to have some official record of these thousands 
of swine which have been examined. As none such exists, we must believe the 
same to be a loose assertion without foundation. 
