The parasites of meat and prepared flesh food : two lectures ... together with an appendix containing a descriptive catalogue of one hundred drawings of parasites exhibited in the South Gallery, class VIII., no. 206 / by T. Spencer Cobbold.

  • Cobbold, T. Spencer (Thomas Spencer), 1828-1886.
Date:
1884
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The parasites of meat and prepared flesh food : two lectures ... together with an appendix containing a descriptive catalogue of one hundred drawings of parasites exhibited in the South Gallery, class VIII., no. 206 / by T. Spencer Cobbold. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    fish to know that with regard to these little filarae (these little earthworm-like creatures of which you see an enor- mous number sometimes in fish that are brought to table), you may swallow any amount of them you please, cooked or uncooked, and no harm can possibly result. I do not say that every parasite in fish is harmless ; it does so happen that there are one or two which are not so ; but you need pay no regard to these, as they are extremely rare. I was once called upon to give an opinion upon a supposed outbreak of trichinosis near the mouth of the Thames, where a family were severely affected ; and, curi- ously enough, their domestic cat died from what they supposed to be the same disease. I examined the cat, and found it had died of a parasite very like the trichina in its behaviour. It was a totally different parasite, namely, (mlanus. The disease, therefore, which sweeps off cats is olulanosis, not trichinosis. Swarms of animals are carried off by these and other destructive little organisms, and the diseases are set down to wrong causes by persons who have not acquainted themselves with all the multitudinous in- tricacies and nice distinctions which abound in this really complicated and extraordinary subject. Now we come to another aspect of this question, and that is prevention. How shall we prevent any harm arising from these affections? It is easy enough. Years ago I instituted a few experiments, and Dr. Timothy Richard Lewis did the same in Calcutta, with the view of determining this point, and we came to the conclusion that trichinae submitted to a heat of 140° Fahrenheit, would be killed. In this way we ascertained that meat compara- tively underdone would be pretty safe, though raw meat, of course, would not be so. But our experiments were rough and poor compared with some recently instituted by Professor Perroncito of Turin. Those temperature- experiments were made with extreme care, and he found, greatly to our satisfaction, that 48° Cent, (which is rather less than 120° Fahr.) is sufficient to kill the trichina. There is, therefore, absolutely no reason why anyone should have