THE PORK PLAGUE.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume IX, Issue 954, 22 June 1881, Page 3

THE PORK PLAGUE.

The engraving, a copy of one which appears in a recent issue of the San Francisco News Letter, shows a small bit of human flesh into which trichina spiralis has entered and made its habitation and its home. The curled objects are the living females, and the white things, like extremely minute oyster shells, are the eggshells out of which the young have gone to produce others like them. The News Letter speaks of the trichime as follows : “ The rate at which these worms multiply their kind is almost inconceivable to any one who has not made a close study of the low forms of worms and insect life. The ratio of the reproduction of its species by a single worm if stated in figures as taking place during only a few days or weeks would seem incredible, because impossible, to the ordinary understanding.. The effect of this multiplication of their kind by only a few individuals when once introduced into human bowels, and the rapidity with which they find their way into the tissues and muscular system is also wonderful. They are so small that only a high power microscope can display them. The remotest origin of the worm at present known lies in the bowels and flesh of mice, and, perhaps, some other small rodents. The trichinae find their way into the human system through insufficiently cooked pork, but more commonly through bacon, sausages and ham, which latter are often eaten uncooked.