Fred’k T. Frelinghuysen to Sargent, April 16, 1884

No. 126. Mr. Frelinghuysen to Mr. Sargent.

Sir: Your No. 263, of the 24th ultimo, transmitting the text of a recent ministerial circular touching the danger of consuming raw pork as food, has been received.

I am disposed to regard this circular as evincing a willingness on the part of the German authorities to consider the pork question in a practical way, which cannot but promise good results.

There can be but little doubt of the fact, to which I called attention in my letter to the President of February 28, transmitting the report of the pork commission, that trichiniasis is distinctly traceable to the consumption of the flesh of freshly killed native hogs, and that the virulence of infection is observed to diminish with the time elapsing between the killing of the animal and the consumption of its flesh, soon ceasing altogether, especially when the meat is even slightly salted.

The disposition, I am satisfied, exists on both sides to favor the widest, frankest, and most practical examination of the whole subject, in the interest of the people of the two countries.

I am, &c.,