Office of the Historian

No. 214.
Mr. Sargent to Mr. Frelinghuysen.

Legation of the United States,
Berlin, December 1, 1883. (Received December 17.)
No. 218.]

Sir: I have the honor to inform you that, in consequence of notices which appeared in the daily papers that an outbreak of trichinosis had occurred at Thorn, a city in West Prussia, of 70,000 inhabitants, I wrote to Mr. Peter Collas, our consular agent at Danzig, to furnish me with such particulars as he might be able to obtain in regard to the reported epidemic.

The following is one of the notices referred to:

Thorn, November 20.—It is confirmed that about fifty persons have been attacked by trichinosis here; up to Saturday twenty-one cases were authenticated by the district physician, and since then many new cases have been reported to the police. A meat shop, in which infected sausages were discovered, was closed on Saturday, but after an inspection of the remaining wares was again opened. The owner of the shof had received about 230 pounds of meat from Culmsee, through which the dreadful disease seems to have been brought hither, as previous to this several persons had been attacked by trichinosis at Culmsee. By order of the commander of this place, the soldiers of the garrison are forbidden to purchase sausages or raw ham in the meat shops here.

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I herewith inclose a copy of the reply received from Mr. Collas, with a copy and translation of the letter from the editor of the Thorn newspaper, from whom his information was received, which confirms the above report. It seems that the pork causing the mischief is of native production.

I have, &c.,

A. A. SARGENT.
[Inclosure 1 in No. 218.]

Mr. Collas to Mr. Sargent.

United States Consular Agency,
Danzig, November 30, 1883.

Sir: In consequence of your request, I at once made inquiries respecting the trichinosis at Thorn, where I find that about fifty cases, more or less serious, have occurred, arising from the enjoyment of sausages manufactured from pork sent hither from Culmsee, a place about 20 kilometers distant, the meat being native production. It is not quite clear whether the same was examined in the usual manner before going into consumption, but this is under investigation at present by the official authorities, and about which I shall endeavor to obtain the result and information later on.

I remain, &c.,

PETER COLLAS,
United States Consular Agent.
[Inclosure 2 in No. 218.—Translation.]

Mr. Queschede to Mr. Guldzniski.

Thorn, November 23, 1883.

In reply to your esteemed inquiry of yesterday, we respectfully inform you that, according to the researches made by us, about fifty cases of trichinosis have occurred. The disease has been caused by the consumption of sausage, which was made from inland pork. This pork is said to have been brought here from Culmsee, but the dealer in question denies this. The investigation already instituted by the authorities will develof the facts. There has as yet been no question made regarding foreign pork.

Respectfully,

GUSTAV QUESCHEDE,
Editor Thorner Ostdtutsche Zeitung.