Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, Transmitted to Congress, With the Annual Message of the President, December 4, 1883

No. 211.
Mr. Sargent to Mr. Frelinghuysen.

[Extract.]

Legation of the United States,
Berlin, October 26, 1883. (Received November 12.)

No. 208.]

Sir: I am now able to transmit the able report of Mr. W. C. Fox, consul at Brunswick, made in response to my request of the 21st instant, in obedience to your telegraphic instruction received here on the night of the 20th.

Mr. Fox intelligently followed the directions given to him, and was furnished every facility by the local authorities, whose courtesy towards him was most marked.

I refer the Department to his inclosed report for a full statement of the origin, nature, and extent of the disease. It may be briefly stated that the fully ascertained cause of the epidemic was the consumption, mostly in an entirely raw and partly in a partially raw condition, of the flesh of three hogs raised in the vicinity, mixed with that of a Hungarian hog. The extraordinary spread of the disease, through five villages in a circuit of 2 miles, occurred because the potato harvest was in progress, and it was customary for the people to eat raw meat and bread in the field at such times instead of spending time to go to and return from their homes. The inspection is alleged by the inspector and butcher to have been made in accordance with the law, though the record required by law was not properly kept. The inspector was the village barber, the person habitually employed in Germany for such inspections, who passes an examination as to his fitness for the task. But the three preparations made for microscopic inspection, under the law, are not sufficient to give safe results, as trichinӕ are sometimes found only after thirty or forty trials. The only safeguard of the consumer against the disease is thorough cooking, and this is ample.

The whole number of cases so far is about 438, of which 36 have been fatal and 19 more probably will be fatal.

I learn from another source, outside of this report of Mr. Fox, from an eye-witness who is fully reliable, that the scenes at Ermesleben are distressing in the highest degree. My informant entered one house where the grandmother, father, and son lay dead, and a daughter, about eighteen years of age, lay sick. She is the only one of the family left, and may recover. There are about 700 inhabitants in the village, living in about 120 houses. There are 267 sick in 85 houses. Some of the people are in want, but the community is rich, some of the peasants being worth $200,000 apiece. There is a large kitchen where food is prepared for all the sick, for rich and poor alike.

The sickness is accompanied by extreme exhaustion. Swollen extremities force the patients to remain perfectly still for weeks, unless relieved from suffering by death, which is caused directly by suffocation. These sad scenes lead to several conclusions:

1st. American pork is exonerated from the suspicion of being the cause of this disaster, and its prohibition by Germany upon the theory that it is more harmful than other pork is unadvised. * * *

2d. The inspection laws of Germany are totally inadequate to prevent such calamities so long as the people indulge the habit, which seems to Americans nauseous, of eating pork raw.

3d. This epidemic is a terrible warning to Germany to abstain from eating raw pork. In the language of Professor Hertwieg to the convention of butchers of Berlin, in 1865, “You know what you have to do in your kitchens, and if you do it properly we have no need of inspection.”

The constant danger from native pork eaten in a raw state is shown by the results following the prospect of local rewards given for the detection of trichinӕ. I translate the two following announcements from a recent number of the Halberstädter Intelligenzblatt, published in the infected neighborhood, showing not only that the domestic article is highly dangerous, but that the inspection contemplated by the law is insufficient:

Quedlinburg, October 14.

A reward of 30 marks of public money has been awarded to Inspector Reder, at Gr. Schierstedt, for the discovery of trichinӕ in a hog examined by him.

The magistrate of Quedlinburg has awarded a reward of 15 marks to the inspector of meat, Julius Yrem, for the discovery of trichinӕ in a pig slaughtered on the 29th ultimo.

An article published last spring in a newspaper of Berlin, which is usually supposed to express official ideas, held to the view that the prohibitory decree was proper, because a Government must recognize in its acts the tastes of its people; that Germans like to eat pork raw, and hence the fact that well-cooked pork is safe and uncooked pork dangerous does not make any difference; the Government will keep out the American article because it is dangerous in a raw state. The discussion of these events at Ermesleben in the German papers has been quite restricted, and it seems to me there has not been much disposition to draw the natural inferences, viz, that the eating of raw pork of all nationalities should cease. * * *

I have thanked Mr. Fox for his interesting report, and will forward to the Department the official statement of the local authorities to which he alludes as soon as I receive it, and will also have inquiries made as to any other neighborhood in which I may observe the disease stated to be prevalent.

I have, &c.,

A. A. SARGENT.

[Inclosure in No. 208.]

Consul Fox to Mr. Sargent.

United States Consulate,
Brunswick, October 25, 1883.

Sir: In compliance with your instructions I visited the villages of Ermesleben and Deesdorf, in this consular district, on October 23, and have now the honor to make the following report upon the trichina epidemic prevailing in that vicinity.

Ermesleben, the place where the disease has taken most formidable dimensions, is situated near the Harz Mountains, about five English miles from the city of Halberstadt, in the province of Saxony. It embraces in its confines some of the most fertile soil, and is one of the most prosperous localities in the Prussian Kingdom.

The scourge now raging there has awakened not only the heartfelt sympathy of all, but the liveliest interest in medical circles, and the locality is visited daily by physicians from abroad and others interested in obtaining scientific information in regard to it. It has assumed such proportions that it is absolutely impossible for the resident physicians to attend to all the cases. Under the direction of privy counselor Prof. Dr. Weber, of Halle, Mr. Wagner, a student of medicine, is on the spot ministering to the wants of the sick and taking notes for the purpose of future publication. To this gentleman, as well as to Mr. Pastor Greiling, who is also unceasing in his attentions to the sufferers, and to Mr. Amtmann Heine, magistrate of the village, I am indebted for many courtesies shown, as well as for information in regard to and opportunity to personally see many of the patients. The sickness was first noticed in Ermesleben about September 16. Several persons were taken suddenly ill with nausea and acute diarrhea. Medical aid was obtained forthwith, and it was first thought that a cholera epidemic had broken out (cholera nostras), until other symptoms—swelling of the eyes, face, and extremities, combined with high fever—showed that it was undoubtedly trichinosis. The disease spread rapidly, and up to date 433 cases have been recorded; 36 have been fatal, and upwards of 19 will undoubtedly prove so, as follows:

Places.	Cases.	Deaths.	Probably die.
Ermesleben	267	27	14
Nienhagen	80	None.	?
Gröningen (Kloster)	10	2	?
Deesdorf	40	7	5
	397	36	19
	433

In Nienhagen and Groningen the cases are much lighter than in Ermesleben, and in all probability the patients will all recover. Several cases are reported to exist in Wegeleben and Köthhof, though not over five in all. All of the infected villages lie within a circuit of about two English miles. I made Ermesleben and Deesdorf the basis of my investigation, and was informed by the gentlemen with whom I conversed upon the subject that I could learn nothing of further interest in the other places, as all the parties competent to give me information were in Ermesleben at the time.

When it became apparent that the disease was trichinosis the local authorities immediately instituted a thorough investigation in the endeavor to locate its origin.

It appears that on or about the 12th and 14th of September four swine were butchered; the meat of all was mixed and sold to the inhabitants of the infected districts. Three of the pigs were the so-called Landschwein (common kind reared in the vicinity), the other was Baguner (Hungarian). The fact has been established beyond all dispute that in all the cases the patients had eaten the meat raw, either in the form of Klumpfleisch (raw chopped meat) or in the form of Rothwurst (blood sausage). This latter article is said to be cooked, but (my informant, Mr. Pastor Greiling, assured me) so slightly as to have no effect whatever upon the trichinӕ germs. The custom of eating raw swine’s meat is prevalent in the neighborhood, and the first trichina epidemic occurred in 1865, though it was not so disastrous as the on e now raging. The inhabitants caimed then, as now, that the swine were not properly inspected. The country folk have the idea that the examination, when conducted according to law, gives them ample security. Dr. Wagner maintained to me, however, that this is an erroneous supposition, and that the present law is very defective. The law requires the inspector to make at least three preparations for microscopic examination, and, as a rule, he rarely makes more. It is asserted, however, that experiment has proved that the trichinӕ are sometimes found only after the thirtieth or fortieth trial respectively. In 1865 Professor Hertwieg, in an address delivered before a convention of Berlin butchers, said, “You know what you have to do in your kitchens, and if you do it properly we have no need for inspection.”

I think that the whole case is here stated in a nut-shell, and Ermesleben affords additional evidence of the truth of the statement. Mr. Amtmann Heine, leaseholder of the Ermesleben estates, together with his family, partook of the meat in cooked form. None of them have suffered in the least. One of the kitchen maids, however, simply tasted of the raw meat and is ill. The village tavern-keeper and his family also ate of the cooked meat and are well and hearty. His little daughter ate some of it raw at a neighbor’s home and became slightly infected. The sworn official inspector, who is, by the way, the village barber in Ermesleben, and the butcher, have been held to answer, and in the preliminary examination, the charges of manslaughter, infliction of bodily injury, and negligence in performance of duty have been preferred.

Under the law the butcher is required to notify the inspector when he has slaughtered a pig. The inspection is then made, which consists simply in making preparations for microscopic examination, as before stated; the inspector then certifies to the facts as they may appear to him. If he declares the animal to be clean, its meat can be sold for consumption. The butcher, as well as the inspector, is required to keep a list of all swine slaughtered and inspected. This list is at all times open to the revision of the authorities. In the case in question it appears that this list was not kept, or, if kept at all, so imperfectly as to be wholly worthless as evidence. The delinquents made an effort to put it in order, were detected and finally acknowledged it. They nevertheless earnestly maintained that the inspection was made according to law. The parties as well as their families are all sick; several members have died,, and others are at the point of death. A circumstance which in a measure explains-how it happened that the epidemic assumed such formidable proportions in Ermesleben is the fact that it was the time of the potato harvest, and the whole village,, young and old, men, women, and children, were at work in the potato fields. At such times it is the custom not to cook a midday meal, but, in order to save the time which would otherwise be consumed in going and coming, to take a simple repast composed of raw meat and bread. As a natural consequence the sickness has caused great consternation in the community, and the people have become doubly careful. As a result, according to the Halberstädter Intelligenzblatt, several infected swine have been discovered. Mr. Meinecke, a veterinary surgeon in Derenburg, succeeded in finding one, and in his report makes the following suggestions:

1. In order to secure thorough inspection to offer a high premium for every infected hog found.

2. Not to eat the raw meat.

3. To adopt measures, to prevent the swine becoming infected.

In conclusion it is hardly necessary for me to mention that the local authorities as well as private charity are doing all that human power can do to relieve the present distress. I cannot, however, refrain, in expressing my sincere thanks to Pastor Greiling and Mr. Wagner, to refer to their untiring energy and self-sacrifice of personal interests, in the work which they have on hand. Mr. Wagner is preparing an exhaustive-report, which he has promised to send me when completed, and I hope to be able to transmit same to you at an early day. While we certainly deeply sympathize with this sadly afflicted community, it must nevertheless be the source of peculiar satisfaction to our countrymen to know that the malady was not caused by American meats. In fact, it has not been even intimated that such a thing was possible, and there is no evidence that American pork has ever been used there at all.

I have, &c.,

WILLIAM C. FOX,
United States Consul.