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 their 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 infested; and cats, feeding upon them, are often infested to an enor mous extent, as will be seen from the extracts further 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 Cysticerci. Mr. Wormald also observed the characteristic specks in human muscle, and furnished Prof. Owen with the specimens 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, according 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 larvae 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 more 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 Trichina 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 larvie; 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 haye been found alive in the intestines eight weeks after the inges tion of the flesh in which they are contained. The larvae remain in the muscles they have reached, and shortly become 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 ing certainly does. Time also has its effect on them, though they are endowed with wonderful vitality., In some healthy subjects who died from accident, the larvae and their enclosing cysts have been found to have undergone cal careous degeneration; hut it is probably months, and even years, before the death of the parasite 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 mouth. The case, in the first stage, presented the following symptoms: Lassitude, dep: ession, sleeplessness, loss of appe tite and fever, so that it was thought to be a case of typhoid fever; but Lucie supervened ex cessive pain in the muscles, especially of the limbs, contractions of the knee and elbow, swelling of the legs, and finally pneumohia, which ended the patient's suf ferings. On post mortem examination the muscles were found crowded with enor mous numbers of the Trichina spiralis, 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 amined their flesh with the microscope, and demonstrated the presence of numerous Trichince in the pork. He also learned that all the patient's fellow servants had be come more or less ill about the same time, the butcher who slaughtered the animals had ever since that event been seriously ill, suffering rheumatic pains in his limbs, and seeming 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 be 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's discovery is correct. Virchow, Leuckart, Davaine, Turner, Thudicum, Cobbold, Dalton, and others, have verified the fact. Nor has other ar.‘1 m^re seri ous corroborative evidence been wanting. Wun derlich has reported four cases among the butch 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, fol lowing a hotel dinner where one hundred and three of the citizens had partaken of smoked sausage. In these cases the 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 been considered by the owner not to he in good condition. On the day after the dinner several of the par takers were attacked with diarrhoea, pros 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. Exami 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 ap - pliance of the medical art had 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 attack seems to depend consider ably on the number of parasites introduced into the patient's intestinal canal; something also depends, probably, on the length of time 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 closely resembled 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 larvae in the intestinal canal, and to the irritation produced by their penetration of its walls and contiguous mem branes. Later in the disease, and as the travel ing parasites reach their destination in the mus Iles, 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 theiother symptoms have disappeared. Death is generally preceded by extensive inflam mation of the lungs, and 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 almost 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 has so far been unsatisfactory in its results. n order to clear away any mature parasites which may be in the intestinal canal, the use of cathartics, such as castor oil, is recommended. 3Iozler 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 Trichina. 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 anemia 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 in 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 considerable 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 meat to the inspection of a government official provided with proper instruments of investiga tion. Microscopes for the especial purpose of detecting Thallium 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 trichinae. The flesh of a hog fed on slaughter-house refuse, showed many ,trichinae, as also did the flesh of a hog kept in a close pen and fed on city garbage, principally hotel waste. The conclusion was that in both cases the trichina 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 noxious. In fact, the parasites, in a majority of instances, have been traced directly to home-fed pork.•