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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.— SUPPLEMENT. 



from the trichina-disease. Eighty persons, ac- 

 cording to the Zcitung fur Norddeutschland, were 

 affected in December, 1863, in Plauen, but only one 

 died. In 18G2, of thirty-eight persons attacked in 

 Calhe, near Magdeburg, eight died ; and in Hett- 

 stiidt twenty died out of a total of 135 who were 

 attacked. The symptoms exhibited by the pa- 

 tients were those of an acute fever, accompanied 

 by distressing pains in the muscles. The discovery 

 of the trichina's fatal powers, as might be expect- 

 ed, caused no little consternation, but we are not 

 aware that the affection of our Continental neigh- 

 bors for raw meat declined in consequence. If 

 one narrative, indeed, is to be trusted, there were 

 not wanting, it seems, those who affected an en- 

 tire disbelief in the trichina, and in the fatal 

 effects it was capable of inducing. One head- 

 strong savant was thus said to have fallen a vic- 

 tim to his skepticism. Holding in his hand a 

 piece of sausage, which he alleged had been de- 

 clared to contain trichinae, he avowed his entire 

 disbelief in the fatal effects which were said to 

 follow the introduction of those parasites within 

 the human economy. He would, in fact, have no 

 objection, for that, matter ofit, to eat the sausage. 

 "Eat! eat!" was the cry which resounded 

 through the hall, and in compliance with the re- 

 quest, the savant ate the sausage. Lamentable 

 to relate, the trichinae proved too much for even 

 a scientific organization, and the subject of the 

 experiment was said to have died from the 

 trichina-disease induced by his own act. Nor 

 may the fatality of the trichina-disease be re- 

 garded as a mystery in the light of the facts as 

 to the numbers of the parasites which one " host " 

 may contain. Dr. Cobbold affirms, and with good 

 reason, that 20,000,000 trichinae may be con- 

 tained in one subject. In one ounce of muscle 

 taken from a cat which had been experimented 

 upon as a producer of trichinae, Leuckart estimated 

 that 325,000 of the parasites were contained. 

 An average-sized man, weighing ten stones, will 

 carry about four stones of muscle ; and assuming 

 that all the voluntary muscles of the body were 

 affected, such a person might afford lodgment 

 to 30,000,000 of these parasites. In this in- 

 stance, therefore, numbers clearly mean power, 

 and that, too, of a fatal kind. 



The history of the trichina's development 

 again brings before us a most singular series of 

 phases, and once more presents us with the ne- 

 cessity for a " double-host," as in the case of the 

 tapeworms. If we start with the trichina as they 

 exist within the muscles of the pig, we find that 

 the parasites are contained each within the little 



sac or cyst already mentioned. The pig, it may 

 be remarked, is not the only host which affords 

 lodgment to the trichina, since dogs and cats, 

 rats and mice, rabbits and hares, oxen, horses, 

 sheep, Guinea-pigs, and other animals, are found 

 to be subject to their attack. It must, however, 

 be noted that, as found in the muscles of any 

 animal, the tiichinae are not only perfectly harm- 

 less to that animal, but, further, exist in an un- 

 developed or immature condition. As seen in- 

 closed in their little sac-like cradles, the trichinae 

 are, in every sense of the term, "juvenile" para- 

 sites. They represent, in fact, a young and rising 

 generation waiting for a favorable turn of For- 

 tune's wheel to start them on the further stages 

 of their life -history. This favorable turn arrives 

 at the moment when the flesh containing the 

 young and immature trichina-population is eaten 

 by a warm-blooded animal. Suppose the "tri- 

 chiuiased " flesh of a pig to be eaten without due 

 culinary preparation by man, the result of the 

 preliminary processes of digestion in the stom- 

 ach is the dissolution of the little cysts, and the 

 consequent liberation of the "juvenile" popula- 

 tion. In two days thereafter, the precocious "ju- 

 veniles," influenced by the change of life and sit- 

 uation, have become mature trichinae; and, after 

 the sixth day, enormous numbers of eggs are pro- 

 duced by these matured forms. After this stage 

 has been attained, the parent-parasites become of 

 no further account in the history of the host, 1 but 

 the young form the subjects of grave concern. 

 This new generation is found to be a restless and 

 migratory body, and influenced by the habits 

 of their ancestors, the young pass from the di- 

 gestive organs, through the tissues of the body, 

 to seek a lodgment in the muscles. Now comes 

 the tug of war — for the host at least. With 

 thousands of these microscopic pests boring their 

 way through his tissues, there is no lack of ex- 

 planation of the excessive muscular pains felt by 

 the trichiniased patient. But relief comes in due 

 course when the restless brood has located itself 

 in the muscles. There each young trichina de- 

 velops around itself a cyst or capsule, and re- 

 turns to the primitive form in which we first be- 

 held it. There, also, it will rest permanently, 

 and degenerate into a speck of calcareous matter 

 — unless, indeed, an unlooked-for contingency 

 arises. Were cannibalism a fashionable vice 

 among us, the eaters would receive from the 

 muscles of the eaten the young population of 

 trichinae, just as the original subject received the 

 juvenile brood from the pig. Within the canni. 

 bal organization, the young parasites would be- 



