286 
F. S. BILLINGS. 
STATISTICAL REVISION OF THE TRICHIN EPIDEMICS IN SAXONY FROM 
1860 to 1875 * 
Thirty-nine outbreaks of trichiniasis among men have taken 
place in the sixteen years in question. The whole number of 
persons which were reported to the officials was 1,267 ; of these 
nineteen died—1.58 per cent. In a proportionally small num¬ 
ber of cases the infection took place from eating raw meat; in 
most cases, however, “ knockwurst ” and “ bratwurst ” were the 
causes. The sausages are made from raw chopped meat and 
smoked for one or two days, and eaten either cold or slightly 
fried. Of the nineteen persons that died three (of eight) were 
infected from raw meat; two (from 630 infected) from cold hashed 
sausage; eight (from 340 diseased) from u bradwurst ” (fried 
sausage); and two (of forty-eight diseased) from ham; with re¬ 
ference to the other four there is no information. Of the 6,959,- 
964 swine which were slaughtered in Saxony in these sixteen 
years only 39:1:180,000 gave occasion to trichiniasis in man.” 
It is much to be regretted that the statistics of our medical 
schools and hospitals do not give us the exact number of cases 
where trichinae have been found at autopsies of human beings. 
Dr. Bowditch reported four such cases in the Boston Medical 
and Surgical Journal of 1842—44. Turner says of Scotland, 
that in five years, 1.2 percent, of the human cadavers were found 
trichinous. Fiedler found in Dresden 2.4 per cent- to be in the 
same condition. Wagner in Leipsic reports one to every 30-40 
cadavers as trichinous. Virchow reports them as quite fre¬ 
quently met with. Zeuker reports 1.79 per cent, of the autopsies 
seen by him at Dresden as trichinous. Deports of like nature, 
though not of so great a per cent., come from Italy, Russia, Swe¬ 
den and other countries. 
Austria lays claim to great immunity among her swine, which, 
it seems to me, must be sought in insufficient examination of 
slaughtered hogs. 
fl rof. Franz Mueller, of the Royal Veterinary Institute at 
* H. Reinard’s Archiv d’Heilkunde, 18 Jakog., p. 241, 1877. 
t Oesterrichiscbe Vierteljahrsschrift fur Veterinairkunde, Vol, LI, No. 2, p, 
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