THE FRIGHTFUL PORK DISEASE.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume I, Issue 31, 10 April 1866, Page 3

THE FRIGHTFUL PORK DISEASE.

Dr. Pouchet gives a most harrowing account of the new plague which is committing suck havoc iu Germany, it appears much worse than the real Asiatic plague ; worse than cholera— worse than any other known disease, inasmuch as those attacked are conscious of their doom, and their mind remains perfectlv unclouded whilst their body is racked by fearful torture. Dr. Pouchet says :—-' Edersleben is one of those little German towns that seem the abode of peace and rustic felicity. Well this little town, so smiling and happy, is now filled with m turning' and desolation. For a whole month past dcitii has reigned there. A fearful death after unexampled sufferings, and those that ar- acquainted with the nature of their disease, know that tliey are beiii-j eaten up alive by a legion of worms, hardly so thick as a human hair, that have worked their way into the tissue of their ileslu their muscles, and their nerves. Is not such a Site horibie to dwell upon?

Dr. Karl Stein, of Frankfort, wrote that upwards of 100 children — for they appear to enjoy an immunity — had been deprived of their . parents. There was hardly a house in the village that did not number a victim. At that date upwards of 300 patients were awaiting death, which they knew to be inevitable- 1a prey to fearful sufferings. From 70 to .80 pf the inhabitants, who at the outset of the epideinic'had felt unwell, had taken to flight, to escape "fco'iu "what they considered to be the cholera ; but they had fallen down on the roads, and died without relief; their corpses alonewere picked up." — The epidemic, Dr. Pouchet then proceeded to say, was caused by the ravages of a peculiar kind of worm called trichine, whence the epidemic has received the name of trichinosis. The trichine it seems is one of the emtozoa of the pig, and it is capable of being transplanted into and thriving in the human body. In Germany pork flesh, imperfectly cured and smoked in the. shape of ham and German sausage, is a staple article of food, and from the human stomach, where they penetrate with the ham and saucissbn dear to Germanic palates, the larva; of these entozoa pass into the blood, th.ir size being so microscopic as to enable. them io penetrate even into the minutest vein^ • tlu-y lodge in the nerves, in the muscular and cellular tissues, and feed upon those parts of the human organisation, causing fearful agony and great constitudonal disturbance, which ends in death. No cure has been as yet discovered.