TRICHINA SPIRALIS. This parasite, found principally in the flesh of swine, as among animals used as human food, but probably also in that of all vermin, insect and garbage eating animals, is worthy of special mention, from the fact that, of late years,trichinosis has been known in quite a number of instances as destroying human life. The chief source from which it is taken into the system of swine, is, being allowed to feed on vermin, as rats, mice, insects, and on the garbage of slaughter houses. In the corn zone of the West it is comparatively rare, really almost unknown, from the fact that swine are fed on Indian corn and grass exclusively. If a law were passed against the feeding of slaughter house garbage, it would probably be unknown altogether. It is true that the parasite is found in warm blooded animals generally, but yet, except in flesh or insect eating animals, to so light an extent as to make it altogether probable that thcir presence is due to taking them into the system accidentally. Rats and mice, supposed to be the great means of spreading this parasite —a supposition naturally founded, since they are well known to be generally infcstcd ; and cats, feeding upon them, are often infested to an enor mous extent, as will be seen from the extracta f urther on. From an extended article in a report of the Department of Agriculture we find that, according to Dr. Cobbold, Mr. H. Peacock, so long ago as 1828 observed certain minute gritty particles in the substance of muscles in dissecting room subjects, and made a preparation of mus cle displaying them. Mr. Hilton next observed these specks, and first described the bodies as probably depending upon the formation of very small 6gsticerci. Mr. Wormald also observed the characteristic specks in human muscle, and furnished Prof. Owen with the specimeus on which he drew up his article. Paget first actu ally determined the existence of the entozoOn while a medical student, and read a paper before a society one week before Prof. Owen \presented his article; it is to Owen that we owe the first scientific description and the name of the Trich ina spiralis. The immature parasites, as seen in muscles under the microscope, are worms about one-twenty-fifth of an inch in length, spirally coiled up within globular, oval, or lemon shaped transparent cysts, which, ae.cording to the length of time they have been formed, are more or less covered with calcareous matter. According to Leuckart, however, the cysts are to be considered rather as abnormalities, developed some little time after the larvw have reached their destina tion, as hundreds of specimens have been seen to coexist entirely free from cysts. Fig. 1, 2 and 3 show the parasite in various forms highly mag nified. The number found in any one subject varies, but Leuckart estimated that one ounce of cat flesh which he observed must have harbored rnore than 300,000 parasites. Even if we assume that the forty-five pounds of muscle which an ordinarily healthy man possesses were infested with only 50,000 Trichince to the ounce, they would still contain more than 30,000,000. The sexually mature male Trichina,according to Cob bold, is about one-eighteenth of an inch long, while the adult female is one-eighth ; the body is rounded, slender, and the head very narrow and sharply pointed. The mode of reproduction is viviparous. The muscular parasite, when intro duced into the alimentary canal of man or ani mal, is set free in the process of digestion, and in two day's time reaches the adult condition. Leuckart states that in six days more the female brings forth a numerous brood of minute hair like larvte; these soon begin their wanderings by piercing the intestinal walls, after which they proceed through the system till they reach the muscles, into which they penetrate; here they develop so that in two weeks more, that is, in about three weeks from the time the infested food was taken, they present the appearance of the ordinary muscular Trichina spiralis. The sexually mature worms probably produce more than one brood of young; they have been found alive in the intestines eight weeks after the inFes tion of the flesh in which they are contained. The larvce remain in the muscles they have reached, and shortly heconae encysted as hereto fore mentioned Smoking the meat does not kill the parasites it contains; brine, if very strong and long applied, probably does; thorough cook inv. certainly does. Tittle also has its effect on th'em, though they. are endowed with wonderful vitality. In some healthy subjects who died from accident, the larvm and their enclosing. cysts have been found to have undergone cal careous degeneration; but it is probably months, and even years, before the death of the parasite occurs; in illustration of which, Virchow states that in one case he found them alive eight. and in another thirteen and a half years after infec tion. Prof. Zenker first discovered the conse quences to which the presence of this parasite in great numbers gives rise. In January, 1860, a. servant girl died in the Dresden hospital, after an illness of about a month. The case, in the first stage, presented the following symptoms: Lassitude, depression, sleeplessness, loss of appe tite and fever, so that it was thought to be a ease of typhoid fever; but there supervened ex cessive pain in the muscles, especially of the limbs, contractions of the knee and elbow, swelling of the legs, and finally pneumonia, which ended the patient's suf ferings. On post mortem examination the muscles were found crowded with enor mous numbers of the Trichina spira? is, and to be in a state of very marked (fatty) de generation. The girl had been a servant in a family where two pigs and an ox had been killed for the Christmas festivities. Zenker, knowing that both animals were liable to the presence of this parasite, ex arained their flesh with the microseope, and demonstrated the presence of numerous Trichinoe in the pork. He also learned that all the patient's fellow servants bad be come more or less ill about the same time, and that the butcher who slaughtered the animals had ever since that event been seriously ill, suffering rheumatic pains in his limbs, and seeraing to be paralyzed over his whole body. It is a habit among German butch ers to taste the raw flesh of the animals they slaughter, and from this circumstance Zenker was led to believe that he also was a victim to this parasite. Numerous experiments with trich
inous flesh (this girl's among others) made on animals have proved that Zenker'a. discovery is correct. Virchow, Leuckart, Davaine, Turner, Thudicum, Cobbold, Dalton, and others, have verified the fact. Nor has other and more seri ous corroborative evidence been wanting. derlich has reported four cases among the ers of an establishment, who were taken ill after eating some raw pork. At Planen, in Germany, thirty persons were attacked, of whom one died. At Calbe seven out of thirty-eight cases were fatal. In October, 1863, the town of Heltstadt -was the scene of an outbreak of trichinosis. lowing a hotel dinner where one hundred and three of the citizens had partaken of smoked sausage. In these cases the disease was distinctly traced to a pig which had been purchased for the purpose of making the sausage to be eaten at this festival, and which had heen considered by the owner not to be in good condition. On. tbe day after the dinner several of the takers were attacked with diarrhcea, tration, and fever, and the cases increased so rapidly that in one month twenty of the party were dead, and eighty more were suffering from the fearful malady. nation Of a portion of the sausage revealed the parasites, and portions of muscle from some of the living sufferers and from the dead victims demonstrated the. cause of the outbreak. When the epidemic ceased the twenty-eight cases had died, every pliance of the medical art bad been tried, and the disease had been observed with such extreme care that its various features can hereafter be recognized without difficulty. The violence of an attaek seems to depend ably on the number of parasites introduced into the patient's intestinal canal; something also depends, probably, on the length of thne the parent parasites live, or the number of broods they produce. The previous constitution and strength of the sufferer also modify this as they do other disorders. Cases which have occurred in the United States have closelyresembled those recorded in Germany, of which that of the ser vant girl above mentioned may be taken as a. type. The disease makes its appearance a few days after the introduction of infested food, with abdominal pain and tenderness, nausea or vomit ing, a feeling of lassitude, loss of appetite and high fever. This condition of things is due to the development of the larvm in the intestinal canal, and to the irritation produced by their penetration of its walls .and contiguous mena branes. Later in the disease, and as the travel ing parasites reach their destination in the mus cles, occur vague but severe pains, with marked stiffness. The muscles swell, become tense and hard, and are exceedingly painful on movement. As the case proceeds, from the third to the fifth week, there is frequently great difficulty in breathing, probably dependent on the invasion of the respiratory muscles by the parasite. Paralysis from the degeneration of the affected muscular tissues is found in some severe cases, and some times continues in a more or less degree for some time after the other symptoms have disappeared. Death is generally preceded by extensive inflam mation of the lungs, aud sometimes by delirium. Convalescence, in cases terminating favorably, is slow. The duration of an attack may be stated to be from four to eight weeks; that of recovery as much longer. In this country, so far, the disease has been almost exclusively developed in our citizens of German birth. American cookery is much more thorough, at least in the case of meats, than is that of 'Europe, especially in the West, where most of the epidemics of trichinosis have occurred among our adopted citizens, and it is perhaps fortunate that an amount of cooking which makes beef ahnost totally indigestible, is necessary to render pork fit for human consump tion, even when unaffected by parasitic disease. The treatment of trichinosis in the human sub ject has so far been unsatisfactory in its results. In order to clear away any mature parasites which may be in the intestinal canal, the use of cathartics, such as castor oil, is recommended. Mozler and Niemeyer unite in advising that ben zine, in doses of one or two fluid drachms, in gel atine capsules, should be given for its supposed efficacy against the intestinal Trichinse. The pain may be modified by long- continued hot baths. Quinine, in small doses, for the fever, stimulants for the prostration, and iron, in some form, for the anmmia during convalescence, are obvious resources. But far more good is to be accomplished by prevention than by treatment. Pork in every form, should be thoroughly cooked before being eaten. If all meats presented for sale iu markets could be examined microscopi cally before being sold, it would be the most efficacious means of preventing future epidemics. In many parts of Germany, but more particularly in Prussia, legal means of prevention have been attempted with con,,iderable success. Either the butcher is compelled to own and use a micro scope for the examination of the meat of the animals slaughtered by him, or to submit such rneat to the inspection • of a government official provided with proper instruments of investiga tion. Microscopes for the especial purpose of detecting Trichmse are now manufactured and for sale throughout Germany, accompanied by such directions and descriptions as will enable any one. of ordinary intelligence to detect the parasite in any of its forms. Of course severe penalties enforce the examination of meat ex posed for sale, and several butchers have been punished for neglect or violation of the laws in this respect. Late investigations have not shown anything essentially different from the foregoing. Investigations made by the editor some years ago, on pork fed on grass and corn, exclusively, failed to show the presence of triehinse. The flesh of a hog fed on slaughter-house refuse, allowed many trichinffl, ad also did the flesh of a hog kept ina close pen and fed on city garbage, principally hotel waste. The conclusion was that in both cases the trichinse came largely from rats and other verminous animals consumed. So the late investigations made in Europe, have failed to show that American corn-fed pork is mixious. In fact, the parasites, in a majority of instances, have been traced directly to home-fed pork.