TRICHINA SPIRALIS. This parasite, found principally in the flesh of swine, as among animals used as human food, but probably also in that of all vermin, insect and garbage eating animals, is worthy of special mention, from the fact that, of late years,trichinosis has been known in quite a number of instances as destroying human life. The chief source from which it is taken into the system of swine, is, being allowed to feed on vermin, as rats, mice, insects, and on the garbage of slaughter houses. In the corn zone of the West it is comparatively rare, really almost unknown, from the fact that swine are fed on Indian corn and grass exclusively. If a law were passed against the feeding of slaughter house garbage, it would probably be unknown altogether. It is true that the parasite is found in warm blooded animals generally, but yet, except in flesh or insect eating animals, to so light an extent as to make it altogether probable that thcir presence is due to taking them into the system accidentally. Rats and mice, supposed to be the great means of spreading this parasite —a supposition naturally founded, since they are well known to be generally infcstcd ; and cats, feeding upon them, are often infested to an enor mous extent, as will be seen from the extracta f urther on. From an extended article in a report of the Department of Agriculture we find that, according to Dr. Cobbold, Mr. H. Peacock, so long ago as 1828 observed certain minute gritty particles in the substance of muscles in dissecting room subjects, and made a preparation of mus cle displaying them. Mr. Hilton next observed these specks, and first described the bodies as probably depending upon the formation of very small 6gsticerci. Mr. Wormald also observed the characteristic specks in human muscle, and furnished Prof. Owen with the specimeus on which he drew up his article. Paget first actu ally determined the existence of the entozoOn while a medical student, and read a paper before a society one week before Prof. Owen \presented his article; it is to Owen that we owe the first scientific description and the name of the Trich ina spiralis. The immature parasites, as seen in muscles under the microscope, are worms about one-twenty-fifth of an inch in length, spirally coiled up within globular, oval, or lemon shaped transparent cysts, which, ae.cording to the length of time they have been formed, are more or less covered with calcareous matter. According to Leuckart, however, the cysts are to be considered rather as abnormalities, developed some little time after the larvw have reached their destina tion, as hundreds of specimens have been seen to coexist entirely free from cysts. Fig. 1, 2 and 3 show the parasite in various forms highly mag nified. The number found in any one subject varies, but Leuckart estimated that one ounce of cat flesh which he observed must have harbored rnore than 300,000 parasites. Even if we assume that the forty-five pounds of muscle which an ordinarily healthy man possesses were infested with only 50,000 Trichince to the ounce, they would still contain more than 30,000,000. The sexually mature male Trichina,according to Cob bold, is about one-eighteenth of an inch long, while the adult female is one-eighth ; the body is rounded, slender, and the head very narrow and sharply pointed. The mode of reproduction is viviparous. The muscular parasite, when intro duced into the alimentary canal of man or ani mal, is set free in the process of digestion, and in two day's time reaches the adult condition. Leuckart states that in six days more the female brings forth a numerous brood of minute hair like larvte; these soon begin their wanderings by piercing the intestinal walls, after which they proceed through the system till they reach the muscles, into which they penetrate; here they develop so that in two weeks more, that is, in about three weeks from the time the infested food was taken, they present the appearance of the ordinary muscular Trichina spiralis. The
sexually mature worms probably produce more than one brood of young; they have been found alive in the intestines eight weeks after the inFes tion of the flesh in which they are contained. The larvie remain in the muscles they have reached, and shortly become encysted as hereto fore mentioned Smoking the meat does not kill the parasites it contains; brine, if very strong and long applied, probably does; thorough cook in.- certainly does. Time also has its effect on th'em, though they. are endowed with wonderful vitality. In some healthy subjects who died from accident, the larvm and their enclosing. cysts have been found to have undergone cal careous degeneration; but it is probably months, and even years, before the death of the parasite occurs; in illustration of which, Virchow states that in one case he found them alive eight. and in another thirteen and a half years after infec tion. Prof. Zenker first discovered the conse quences to which the presence of this parasite in great numbers gives rise. In January, 1860, a. servant girl died in the Dresden hospital, after an illness of about a month. The case, in the first stage, presented the following symptoms: Lassitude, depression, sleeplessness, loss of appe tite and fever, so that it was thought to be a case nf t.cmhniri fnvor hut. thnre stinervened P.X cessive pain in the muscles, especially of the limbs, contractions of the knee and elbow, swelling of the legs, and finally pneumonia, which ended the patient's suf ferings. On post mortem examination the muscles were found crowded with enor mous numbers of the Trichina spira? is, and to be in a state of very marked (fatty) de generation. The girl had been a servant in a family where two pigs and an ox had been killed for the Christmas festivities. Zenker, knowing that both animals were liable to the presence of this parasite, ex arained their flesh with the microseope, and demonstrated the presence of numerous Trichinoe in the pork. He also learned that all the patient's fellow servants had be come more or less ill about the same time, and that the butcher who slaughtered the animals had ever since that —event been seriously ill, suffering rheumatic pains in his limbs, and seeraing to be paralyzed over his whole body. It is a habit among German butch ers to taste the raw flesh of the animals they slaughter, and from this circumstance Zenker was led to believe that he also was a victim to this parasite. Numerous experiments with trich inous flesh (this girl's among others) made on animals have proved that Zenker'a. discovery is correct. Virchow, Leuckart, Davaine, Turner, Thudicum, Cobbold, Dalton, and others, have verified the fact. Nor has other and more seri ous corroborative evidence been wanting. Wun derlich has reported four cases among the butch ers of an establishment, who were taken ill after eating some raw pork. At Planen, in Germany, thirty persons were attacked, of whom one died. At Calbe 4even out of thirty-eight eases were fatal. In October, 1863, the town of Heltstadt -was the scene of an outbreak of trichinosis. fol lowing a hotel dinner where one hundred and three of the citizens had partaken of smoked sausage. In these cases the disease was distinctly traced to a pig which had been purchased for the purpose of making the sausage to he eaten at this festival, and which had been considered by the owner not to be in good condition. On tbe day after the dinner several of the par takers were attacked with diarrhcea, pros tration, and fever, and the cases increased so rapidly that in one month twenty of the party were dead, and eighty more were suffering from the fearful malady. Exami nation of a portion of the sausage revealed the parasites, and portions of muscle from some of the living sufferers and from the dead victims demonstrated the. cause of the outbreak. When the epidemic ceased the twenty-eight cases had died, every ap .. _ _ .