THE ANIMAL KINGDOM. 



25 



11. Female Trichina depositing her 

 young, magnified 600 diameters. 



turn-sick, because when they are attacked by it they turn 

 round perpetually. Innumerable legions of another worm, 

 still smaller, invade all our fleshy structures, and sometimes 

 multiply in them to such an extent that as many as twen- 

 ty-five have been counted in one of the muscles of the ear, 

 which does not exceed a grain of millet in size. 1 



This worm, which has been a 

 great deal spoken about of late 

 years, is the Trichina sjjiralis. 

 The pig is its favorite abode ; but 

 it is sometimes seen in man, es- 

 pecially where, as in parts of the 

 United States and Germany, ham 

 and sausages are eaten raw. Once 

 introduced within the frame by 

 means of the food, the Trichinae multiply in the intestines, 

 and their little ones invade the muscles to such an extent 

 that as many as six or eight have been discovered in each 

 segment seen in the field of the microscope. A frightful 

 death is the result : we are devoured, still living, by these 

 imperceptible worms, and no human power can arrest their 

 work. 



Thus the dominion of the Microzoa has no bounds but 

 immensity itself. 



1 I allude here to the Trichina spiralis, a little microscopic worm, twisted 

 spirally, which has occasioned numerous fatal accidents in certain portions of 

 the United States and in some parts of Germany. Physiologists know that it is 

 propagated by the use of the flesh of animals infected by it. In certain coun- 

 tries, where there is a suspicion that it is introduced within the system by the 

 use of raw pork as food, the authorities have already begun to interdict the use 

 of the latter article. This is the case iu some parts of Prussia. 



