Rensselaer Republican, Volume 18, Number 27, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 March 1886 — Trichina. [ARTICLE]

Trichina.

Every winter trichinosis makes its fatal appearancein the North and West, adding heavily to the record of mortality. It is remarkable that it very seldom appears in the South. Some years agp the Royal Government of Belgium appointed a committee o( five of the ablest physicians in the Kingdom, who were instructed to make a thorough examination of the American ]x>rk imported into that country. * Tlis investigation revealed, as shown by the report of the committee, that while most of the import was pure, occasional lots were infected with trichina. But the committee went further'and inquired into the effect produced by uhc infested meat upon those whubom&uned it./They r »3» ■ ' 1 - '' " ■ ■*. 5 *

found thatwnere it was cooked the parasite was killed, and the meat wgs both as nutations and as harmless as that Avhich was uninfested. The only canoes of trichinosis discovered were contracted from eating the infested mdat raw. The principal consumers of the pork Avere found to be employes in factories in the towns. These factories employ men, women and children*, and frequently all the members of entire families were employed, so that nobody remains at }tome to cook. Consequently they; jlivie on raAv food. And that habit isHery widely prevalent in those localities. It was among these people, and these alone, that the disease avos found. The committee so reported, and that gaA'e the first absolutely correct solution of the trichina problem. The A'ictims in the North and West are those who eat raw meat. In the South the meat is cooked. It is. fried in coarse grease among the negroes and poor whites, and kills by its grossness; but the frying kills the parasites as well as the man, and the latter is put on the list of consumption, Ayhile trichinosis is substantially unknown. —lndianapolis Sentinel.