Health and Temperance

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Aug 12, 1889

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 15, No. 31.

Health and Temperance.

KILLED BY TRICHINÆ.

JOSEPH PALMI, a laborer, died recently at Bellevue Hospital, New York, of that fortunately rare but extremely painful disease, trichiniasis. This disease may be described to the non-technical reader as the propagation and infinite multiplication of minute living worms in the muscles of the entire system. It usually arises from the use of raw or partially cooked pork.

According to the New York World, he was at first supposed to be suffering from inflammatory rheumatism when brought to the hospital, but from the description of the approach of the symptoms, the resident physician decided that it must be trichiniasis. Palmi at first denied that he had been eating pork, but finally admitted that about a week before the pains appeared he had purchased some pig’s feet of a butcher on Mulberry Street, near his residence. His wife and children had eaten the food with him.

The man suffered terribly; and the physician was compelled to administer opiates, both internally and hypodermically, to ease the excruciating pain caused by the myriads of worms invading every muscle of his writhing body. Though the patient was able to take slight nourishment, he continued to grow weaker day after day until death finally put an end to his sufferings.

“Although I have not yet completed my diagnosis,” said Dr. Williams, “I have no doubt that the case is one of trichiniasis. Palmi acknowledged having eaten pig’s feet during the last week in May, but he must have eaten other kinds of pork, for pig’s feet contain very little muscle, being principally composed of tendons, cartilage, and gelatinous matter. According to his statement his wife had a slight attack of abdominal spasms, which are the first symptoms of the disease. She, however, seems to have recovered, though I should not be surprised if the woman was brought here in the same state as her husband was. Trichiniasis consists of the breeding of minute worms in the muscles, and they go on multiplying until the entire system is filled with them. Being in the muscles of the pork, which has not been properly cooked—and it must be submitted to a heat of 255 degrees to kill the worms—they are taken into the stomach. Here they begin increasing and produce the abdominal spasms which are the initial symptoms; then following the intestinal track, they finally pass through the abdominal wall and so enter the lymphatic organs. From that moment the patient is doomed, unless he is so constituted that his system can resist the trichinæ when they become encysted and die. If they are too strong for resistance they go on living in the muscles until the latter decompose and death ensues very quickly.

“When Palmi was first brought here I took a piece of muscle from his forearm and discovered that he had previously suffered from the disease, because there were encysted worms visible in it. After he died portions of the muscles in the calf and shoulder were removed, and these we intend examining under the microscope just as the portions are, and then they will be hardened and their transverse sections prepared for further examination. But there is no doubt that our diagnosis is the correct one. One of the symptoms is an intense thirst and agonizing pain, both of which were present in this case. Usually trichiniasis is developed from pork which is eaten raw, and people frequently have it who are in the habit of eating raw Westphalia hams and bologna sausage. But pork is not the only meat which is capable of developing trichinæ, for they are found in the muscles of dogs and cats, rats and mice, and even moles, all of which animals eat pork. The origin of trichinæ is unknown, and they may be inherited for all we know.”

Palmi came to the United States in 1885, and he was thirty-four years of age. His wife is also a native of Italy, and they had three children. So far as could be learned the children of Palmi have not suffered any of the symptoms which were developed by the father, and Mrs. Palmi seemed to be in good health, though in terrible grief over the death of her husband.—S. F. Examiner, July 15, 1889.