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Trichina Spiralis.Since that time numerous cases have been observed in which a similar disease has been traced directly to the consumption of pork-commonly as uncooked ham or sausage-in which trichinae have been detected. In one instance a large party, partaking of a festival dinner during a celebration, consumed among other things some raw sausage. Among one hundred and three persons at the table, nearly all were attacked by the disease, and a consid erable number died. On microscopic examination it was found that these sausages, and the pork from which they had been made, contained numerous trichinae, and the same worms were discovered also in the muscles of those who had died of the disease. In our own country cases of this malady - trichinosis - have been fre quently reported, many of them ending fatally. The trichina obtains entrance to the human body through the consumption of pork. The original source of the worm is not as yet definitely known, but it seems that the rat is the natural host of the parasite, and that the worm enters the body of those hogs which devour infected rats. However that may be, the fact remains that a con siderable percentage of American hogs are infested with the trichina ; the exact percentage has varied somewhat in different examinations, according to the source of the pork and the care of the examiner. Examinations of many hundred hogs shipped to the Chicago market have shown that from two to eight hogs in every hundred contain trichinae. The presence of the worm in the hog does not necessarily occasion any symptoms which attract attention to the animal's condition ; in fact, it has been found that many hogs whose bodies contain a large number of the worms, are in perfect health up to the time of being slaughtered. The condition which gives to pork the appearance known as " measly" is not due to trichinae, as is commonly supposed, but to the eggs of a tape worm. One who is familiar with the appearance of trichinous meat can often detect the presence of the parasites when they occur in large numbers, for in this case, especially after they have been contained in the animal a considerable time, numerous white specks, like grains of fine sand, can be observed scattered through the meat. Yet the absence of these specks does not prove that there are no trichinae present, since the white specks are really due, not to the worm itself, but to little masses of matter which collect around the worm as it is coiled up in the muscles. When flesh containing the worm is taken into the stomach of a human being, the little sac containing the worm is dissolved, and the animal is set free in the juices of the stomach and intestines. Here they undergo a rapid development; so long as they remain coiled up in the muscles they are immature and sexless creatures, of comparatively simple structure ; but when they arrive in the human stomach and intestine they grow rapidly, acquire sexual organs, and within eight 'or ten days the now fully developed female worms contain hundreds of living young. These microscopic worms escape from the body of the parent into the alimentary canal, and pass soon afterwards out from the intestine into the muscles of the human body. Having thus migrated all over the body, they coil themselves up in the muscle, and remain an indefi nite period - even twenty years - without undergoing any further change : in fact, they are capable of no development until taken into the stomach of another animal. It is the irritation caused by the passage of these worms from the intestines to different parts of the body, it is the irritation and fever attendant upon it, which constitutes the disease known as trichinosis. So soon as the adult worms in the intestine have ceased to propagate, and so soon as the young produced have escaped from the intestine, the fever ceases, and the individual begins to convalesce. The number of worms contained in the human body is some times enormous ; this can be readily understood when we consider the rapidity of propagation. For the trichinae may exist in the infected pork in large numbers ; as many as 200,000 having been estimated to occur in a cubic inch of the meat; now, when it is remembered that many cubic inches of infected meat may be devoured at a meal, and that each female worm may produce from 600 to 1,000 young within ten days, it may readily be believed that the entire number of young produced and coiled up in different parts of the human body may amount to 30,000,000 or 50,000,000. Such at least seems to be the case in many instances, yet it is important for us to remember that the number of worms taken into the stom ach varies according to the amount of flesh eaten, as well as to the number contained in every cubic inch of the infected meat ; that the amount of meat eaten at a meal varies considerably in different persons and at different times is familiar. Hence it sometimes hap pens, that of two individuals who consume trichinous flesh at the same time, one will be taken seriously ill, while the other will escape with slight symptoms, or even entirely. In the same way the effects vary according to the number of worms contained in the infected pork. In some instances as many as 200,000 trichinae have been found in a cubic inch, while at other times only tenor twenty worms were contained in the same quantity. It is evident that the con sumption of pork containing only a few worms would be followed by less serious effects than by that of meat which was crowded with the worms. Hence the severity of trichinosis varies extremely, all degrees of illness being caused, from a slight indisposition to death itself. Yet it must not be supposed that the consumption of trichin- ous meat necessarily causes the symptoms of trichinosis ; there is nothing poisonous about the worm itself, the damage which it inflicts being due simply to the irritation caused by its burrowing through the flesh. Hence if only a few worms-say one or two thousand-are produced in the intestine, there may be no symp toms whatsoever to indicate disease, and the individual may there fore never suspect that his flesh contains trichinae. Doubtless many of us carry a considerable assortment of these worms in our flesh ; at any rate, it has been found that over two percent, of indi viduals dying in certain large European hospitals, contained some trichinae ; and that, too, without regard to the cause of death, there being no suspicion in any case that the individual had ever had the disease. After the young worms which have thus migrated from the intestine become coiled up in the muscles they cease to cause any symptoms of illness, and remain for an indefinite time, even many years, without undergoing any development. For it will be remem bered that these worms can develop only when taken into the stom ach of another animal. So long, therefore, as they remain in the muscles of the first animal, they retain their immature sexless con dition, and do not propagate. Having, therefore, recovered from the early effects of eating the infected pork the individual is safe from any further sickness from this cause, unless, indeed, he de vours infected pork a second time. Symptoms.-For the first few days after the infected pork is eaten the individual manifests no symptoms of disease. It is only when the young worms are born and begin to pierce the walls of the intestine on their way to the muscles that the evidences of dis ease become manifest; this begins from six to ten days after the meat has been taken into the stomach. The first symptoms consist of pain in the abdomen, diarrhea and vomiting, accompanied by great constitutional disturbance. The general condition is one of nervous exhaustion, very much resembling typhoid fever, for which disease trichinosis is doubtless often mistaken. So soon as the young worms begin to find their way into and through the muscles, symptoms occur which indicate a disturbance in the muscles ; these symptoms consist of acute pains in the limbs and in the back, usu ally aggravated by motion-a condition which the patient regards as rheumatism. In some cases several of the muscles will remain in a state of contraction, that is, the leg will be bent at the knee, or the arm at the elbow, for instance, any attempt to straighten these limbs causing severe pain. There usually occurs during the second or third week considerable swelling of the face, and perhaps of the skin generally. This is a symptom which should arouse suspicion of trichinosis in a patient who otherwise has the symptoms of ty phoid fever. Treatment.-In most cases of trichinosis the cause of the dis ease is not suspected until ten days or two weeks after the pork has been eaten. Exceptions to this rule occur only in cases where a considerable number of healthy people are suddenly taken ill with the same symptoms after eating at a common table - an instance of which occurred in Prussia, where three hundred people became ill within a few days from eating a certain lot of sausages. In those cases where there is no suspicion of the true source of the disease until the pain in the muscles and swelling of the skin occur-usually twelve or fourteen days after the flesh has been eaten - nothing can be done except to support the strength of the patient; for the young worms are now swarming through his body, and cannot be destroyed by any agency without injuring the patient himself. In these cases it remains simply to support the patient's strength by nutritious food combined with alcoholic stimulants - the quantity of the latter varying with the amount of nervous prostration. The pain may also be so severe as to require the use of an opiate. If the nature of the difficulty be suspected within a very few days after the consumption of the pork - that is, before the young worms have begun to leave the intestines - it is advisable to admin- ister brisk cathartics, with the hope of carrying the worms out of the alimentary canal. Some have advised the administration of carbolic acid, or the hyposulphite of sodium, with the hope of destroying the worms in the intestines. As to this mode of treat ment, it can only be said that while these agents are certainly capable, in sufficient strength, of destroying the worms, yet it is very doubtful whether they ever have that effect in the alimentary canal, since we are compelled to administer them in weak solutions in order not to damage the intestine itself. In short, it must be said that we know absolutely no treatment which can be relied upon either to destroy the worms or to prevent them from burrowing into the muscles ; all we can hope to do is to assist the patient in tiding over the attack. Yet, while the treatment is thus unsatisfactory, the prevention of the disease is extremely simple. It consists merely in avoiding all pork, in whatever form, which has not been thoroughly cooked. Smoking, salting and pickling do not destroy the trichinae contained in hog's flesh, so that hams and sausages are quite capable of com municating the disease ; in fact, most of the cases observed have resulted from eating raw sausages and uncooked ham. But first, if you want to come back to this web site again, just add it to your bookmarks or favorites now! Then you'll find it easy! Also, please consider sharing our helpful website with your online friends.
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