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

No. 209.
Mr. Sargent to Mr. Frelinghuysen.

Legation of the United States,
Berlin, October 20, 1883. (Received November 10.)

No. 204.]

Sir: Referring to my No. 201, of 15th October, relating to the prevalence of cases of trichinosis in Germany since the absolute exclusion of all kinds of American pork products, and after the lapse of sufficient time to exclude the conclusion that the cases of disease arise from the consumption of American pork, I am now enabled to state fuller particulars of the epidemic that has broken out in Prussia, as I gather them from the Berlin newspapers, and the dispatches sent from this city to the London journals. A telegram from Berlin to the London Daily News of Tuesday last has the following:

Considering the Draconian measures taken by the German Government against the importation of American pork, it is very strange that a most alarming outbreak of trichinosis is reported from Saxony. In some ten villages nearly four hundred persons, including entire families, are prostrated by the terrible disease. Deaths are occurring daily, and over fifty cases are stated to be beyond hope, while the physicians expect the disease to spread still further. The police are actively engaged in searching for the origin of the epidemic.

The “Draconian measures” referred to have only been directed against American pork, and that in view of the fact, seemingly well founded, that the consumption of American pork in the United States, England, Switzerland, and Belgium, where it is thoroughly cooked before eating, very rarely produces consequences injurious to health 5 and also that investigation showed that the cases of trichinosis occurring in Germany before the prohibition arose from the consumption of native or Hungarian pork in its raw state, and not from the use of American pork. Good medical authority in France sanctions the view that American pork is not dangerous.

However much controversy might be raised over these propositions, there is no room for assumption that the present distressing epidemics are caused by the American articles. It might be worth all the inconvenience of a year’s exclusion of our products of this kind for the result to be so clearly demonstrated that the cases of trichinosis which sometimes occur in Germany are unjustly ascribed to American pork. It has been the universal habit here to assign, without inquiry, this origin to trichinosis cases. Thus the cases occurring at Königsberg (Tilsit) were so accounted, although the inquiries which I caused to be made of the local military and civil authorities controverted that conclusion.

The correspondent of the Daily News falls into the same strain, and holds it extraordinary that trichinosis should be so prevalent and disastrous after the severe measures taken against American pork, as if such measures were all that were necessary to insure immunity.

I inclose a dispatch from the infected district, published in the Berliner Tageblatt of the 17th instant, with translation, in which the details given by the correspondent of the Daily News are confirmed. By this dispatch it seems the disease has been developing for some four weeks, and has spread through several villages, whose inhabitants are accustomed to eat raw sausage meat. All who have eaten pork in this form have died, and many are sick who have eaten probably imperfectly cooked meat and sausages from the infected pigs. The butcher who killed the swine, and the inspector, and their families, are sick. There seems to be no decline as yet in the disease, the horror of which is said to surpass conception. The local authorities are taking the expense of medical treatment upon themselves. That it is genuine trichinosis is shown by examining the flesh of the deceased.

These facts are interesting as showing that the ordinance of the Empire discriminating against American pork, while admitting Russian, Hungarian, or French pork, was not calculated to accomplish its avowed object, viz, the prevention of disease and death from trichinosis. There is no evidence that American pork is worse than that furnished by other countries, and hence no ground for discrimination against it. The danger comes at least equally from other quarters, viz, from German pork, or the pork of the neighboring countries. This is already demonstrated by the facts above given, for American pork cannot be accused of being the cause of these present disasters. If this disease is caused by German pork, the claim in Herr Von Eisendecher’s note of May 2, 1883, to the honorable Secretary of State, is not justified, viz:

Now, as Germany, by its strict and vigorously enforced legislation, affords the same protection to its people at home against all dangers from German cattle and hogs, it cannot possibly treat the foreign producers better than its own.

If the disease comes from foreign hogs, except American, allowed still to be freely imported into Germany, the measure prohibiting our products was not only discriminating against the United States, but ineffectual. In any view the whole subject needs reconsideration by Germany.

I have, &c.,

A. A. SARGENT.

[Inclosure in No. 204.—Extract from Berliner Tageblatt of October 17, 1883.—Translation.]

ermesleben, near halberstadt.

The symptoms of trichinosis of which we have already made mention first made their appearance about four weeks ago in Ermesleben, where the pig or pigs were killed. About two hundred persons lie ill there, of whom fourteen have already died. Then followed Nienhagen, a small way-station near by, where about eighty persons have been attacked, none of whom have died as yet. Further, the disease appeared in Groningen, Quenstadt, Schwanstedt, and Wegeleben. In all about three hundred persons surfer from it, of whom seventeen have died. Throughout the region the habit of eating (raw) chopped pork (so-called sausage meat) predominates, especially among the laboring class. All who have eaten of it in this shape die. But those, too, who have eaten it boiled, or as sausages—yes, as is asserted, even as lard, have been severally attacked with the malady, although their cases are not so hopeless. There does not seem to be a decline in the epidemic, and according to the opinion of the attending doctors, 50 per cent. of the infected die. Other reports estimate the mortality at 20 per cent. May the Almighty prevent this, for the horror of this malady surpasses all conception. In one family five persons, and in another seven, even, have been attacked. In one family four persons died. Even the butcher who sold the meat, and the inspector of the meat, together with their families, are sick. The former has already lost his mother, and there is little hope for himself. The parish authorities have taken very laudable steps to alleviate the distress. In Ermesleben the local authorities have taken the expenses of medical treatment, &c., upon themselves, and Deesdorf immediately granted 1,000 marks for that purpose. Those that die are all young, vigorous persons, and in most cases fathers or mothers of families.

In a portion taken from a female corpse for dissection, seventeen trichinӕ, freed from the capsules, were easily discernible. Upon whom the blame falls, or whose negligence caused this disaster, will probably never appear, since, as already mentioned, the butcher as well as the inspector of the meat, a barber, have both been attacked by the disease.