Trichinosis—A New Discovery Concerning a Curious Disease.
A committee appointed by the Medical Society of Vienna, and composed of professors Klob, Muller and Wedl, has just published a long report on trichinosis, in which the startling fact is asserted that the real source of infection lies entirely in the rat, in which the malady is spontaneously developed, and which communicates to the pig. In Moravia, eighteen out of forty-nine rats examined were trichinized, a proportion of nearly thirty-seven per cent. In Lower Austria the proportion was not more than four per cent., and in the environs of Vienna about ten per cent. The report confirms the fact that trichinosis may be transmitted by food from the rat to the rabbit, from the rabbit to the fox and hedgehog, from the rat to the pig, and from the pig to the rat. Even the calf may be infected by being fed with the flesh of trichinized rabbit. What is worse still, the larvae of flies feeding on infected meat will transmit trichinosis to rabbits, provided the larvae come fresh from the infected substance; for if a certain time be allowed to pass, the trichines soon die in the digestive tube of the larvae. It is important to notice that the report distinctly confirms the innocuousness of trichinized meat when thoroughly salted, smoked or boiled, the latter process being by far the most efficacious. Meat roasted for three-quarters of an hour is safe food; boiling requires a whole hour. And yet the report mentions cases of infection recently observed in Austria, so that means should be taken there to protect the public from this disastrous malady. The first measure proposed is the extermination of all rats and mice, but not without previously examining them, in order to ascertain the existence of trichinosis among them. If this examination should lead to affirmative results, then particular care should be taken in the locality to keep pigs away from all sewers, heaps of manure, and other such places frequented by rats. The flesh of the pig should be examined either after death, or even during life, by means of incisions. The infected pig should be separated from the others, marked, and its sale prevented. Special slaughterhouses should be organized for pigs, and the flesh examined by veterinary practitioners; and the public themselves are warned never to eat raw pork under any form, but strictly to consume it only well salted or smoked, boiled or roasted.