Health and Temperance by Editor

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, Cal. · Jun 24, 1886

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 12, No. 24.

Health and Temperance.

By Editor

"The Diet of Worms,"

EVERY little while the papers contain an account of one or more deaths from trichina—the result of eating raw pork—but instead of warning their readers against the use of swine's flesh as food, the remedy almost universally recommended is "cooking"! The following, from a paper published in Santa Clara County, Cal., is a sample:—

"Early in April a young man named John Martins died from trichina at Livermore. He ate a dish of raw beef and pork chopped fine together, and about a week afterward was taken sick, with symptoms somewhat resembling typhoid fever. Toward the close of his illness he spoke of having eaten the raw meat, and his physician at once suspected the real difficulty and prepared to prove it, but before the instrument arrived the man was dead. The examination was made, however, and the microscope revealed the dreaded trichina in his flesh. The practice of eating raw meat should be discouraged. Very slight cooking will remove all danger. The only flesh commonly eaten in which trichina has been found is pork. Raw beef may contain the young of the tapeworm, which is disagreeable and annoying, if not absolutely dangerous to human life."

Very true, "the practice of eating raw meat should be discouraged;" but how about cooking and eating meat which before cooking is alive with worms, and which after cooking is full of dead worms? Though we suppose that all hogs are not infested with this parasite, yet the chances are that the pork eater will have a "diet of worms." If he cooks his meat he kills the worms; if he eats it raw, the worms kill him. But there is little hope that the public will ever be brought to recognize the fact that swine's flesh is totally unfit for food; and so the papers will continue to record occasional cases of death from trichina, and numerous fatal but not clearly-defined cases "somewhat resembling typhoid fever." However, let all who will subsist upon a "diet of worms" see to it that they are killed by thorough cooking before being eaten.