Untitled article by John Norton Loughborough

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Third-day, March 3, 1868

FromReview and Herald, Vol. XXXI, No. 12

TRICHINÆ.

By John Norton Loughborough

The following statement concerning this dread disease, was read before the “Farmers’ Agricultural Club,” of New York, and reported in the Tribune of Dec. 25th, 1867, and presents some facts concerning the workings of trichinæ.

“Having had trichinæ in my family last Spring, and knowing its terrible effects (having lost my wife and one child with it), I thought to write an account of the workings of that disease in its early stages, thinking, perhaps, others may be profited by a knowledge of it, for, if taken in time, it may be cured by active cathartics, often repeated, so as to carry them out of the stomach. I purchased, on the 1st of March, a ham of a grocer, of which we all ate raw. I ate a piece about as large as an old-fashioned coat. The first effects were felt in four or five days, in soreness in the muscles, with no pain, except when we moved, then nausea and vomiting, with some diarrhea. These are the first symptoms; after these, in the course of as many more days, the eyes will become much swelled and sore, and painful upon coming to the light. My wife lived only two weeks after the swelling of the eyes; a son 4 years old lived a day or two longer; another son, 8 years old, began to recover at the end of about four weeks, and is now nearly well. My soreness left me in about 40 days, and now I am nearly well. Another son of 15 years has been exceedingly sore for two months; it has not entirely left him yet, and he is very weak and emaciated, but is better. Cooked meat will not give the trichinæ, as our school teacher ate of it four or five times, and was not affected, for it was cooked.”

On the last statement in the above, as to cooked meat not giving the trichinæ, there is considerable doubt in the minds of scientific men. From a celebrated Michigan physician, who has been engaged for some time past, with others, in making examinations concerning the workings of this dread disease, I learn the following facts: That boiling and frying will not in all cases kill the trichinæ, for the following reasons: It has been ascertained, that, when the trichinæ are introduced into the stomach of animals or men, they are by the acid of the stomach relieved of an encasement of an investing substance which surrounds the little worm. Immediately on being relieved of this, they commence to multiply by millions, at a rapid rate, and are distributed to all the tissues of the body. As the trichinæ are smaller than the smallest component part of the blood, they will penetrate every place that the blood visits. To just what number the trichinæ multiply is not known, but they become imbedded in all the lean portions of the body, and as they become thus imbedded, and their multiplication ceases, the outer coating is formed on them. This coating, boiling or frying will not affect, but the acids of the stomach will remove it. An animal may be killed, and its flesh eaten while the trichinæ are multiplying, and the outer coat therefore not formed on them. In this case, of course, it would only affect the person while the meat was raw; but when the outer coat is formed, cooking will not affect them.

When this coating is formed on the worm it multiplies no more until this is removed. The acids of the stomach will remove it the quickest of any thing, and its operations commence very soon after being received into the stomach, causing nausea.

As stated above, the only remedy, after a person becomes conscious of having eaten trichinæ, is violent, thorough, and repeated purging, to carry them out of the stomach.

This same physician states that the first stages of trichinæ and typhoid fever are so nearly alike that one may easily be mistaken for the other. He has no doubt in his mind, that very many cases called “fatal cases of typhoid fever,” were nothing else but trichinæ. He is now engaged moreover in making investigations to satisfy his mind fully on this point.

As we regard life and health, let us avoid the use of the animal, or any of that pertaining to it, which is liable to be diseased, as studiously as we would a deadly serpent.

J. N. Loughborough.

Orange, Mich., Feb., 1867.