trichinosis

[Joel S. Berson]

Late breaking news:

1866 April 14, Vermont Chronicle (Bellows Falls).  "The Trichina
Panic.---Dr. J. A. Reed of Baltimore scouts the report that the
Trichina derived from pork has injured anybody.  He says [I excerpt
only the boldest assertions]:
      'I boldly assert that the Trichina never did and never will
destroy human life ... the idea that we receive them thus ["through
the instrumentality of the hog"] is simply ridiculous. ... I defy any
one to prove by the record of the last thirty-five years that a
solitary death has been caused beyond doubt by the presence of the
trichine.  I assert that the charges made against these innocent
worms is without the shadow of a foundation in fact, and would advise
the community, if hey desire to eat port, to do so, provided they do
not eat it raw or tainted.' "

The preceding message has been brought to you by the Pork-Raisers
Association of America (PRAM), later to become the National Pork
Producers Council.  J.A. Reed of Baltimore is not to be confused with
the later Major Walter Reed of Virginia and yellow fever claim, who
surely would not have been so shortsighted.  Some J. A. Reed was the
author of an 1866 Univ. of Pennsylvania thesis titled "... Choler
infantum" (ellipsis in original; WorldCat).

1867 April 15, Bangor (ME) Daily Whig and Courier:  More cases of
trichiniasis in Great Barrington (MA) have been reported by the
Pittsfield (MA) Courier.  This too is close to John Godfrey Saxe's Vermont.

Joel

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