ANNUAL ADDRESS. 6 



himself alone, but his descendants to an unlimited number of 

 generations, all of whom he expects to be included in the enter- 

 tainment. The Trichince. were first seen with the naked eye 

 (in 1835) by a surgeon at Bartholomew's Hospital ; they were 

 also noticed in dissecting-rooms by other persons, about the 

 same time. Their name was given by Professor Owen. When 

 thoroughly domiciled, the muscle which they have colonised 

 looks as if it had been well peppered, owing to the presence of 

 small, gritty, greyish-white granules, which are the roundish, 

 partly calcified cysts, containing the entozoa. 



During an epidemic, which extended over some years, in the 

 duchy of Brunswick, nearly 1,000 persons suffered from the 

 trichinous disease, but its nature was not clearly ascertained until 

 afterwards. Then a gentleman, who had suffered during the 

 epidemic, consented to have some of his own muscle removed 

 for examination, and under the microscope the Trichhice were 

 seen. (This procedure was simplified some few years ago by a 

 physician, who contrived a kind of muscle-tester, viz., a small 

 silver tube i-ioth of an inch or less in diameter, containing 

 a kind of piston with a sharp point, and a hook like a lady's 

 crochet-hook. The sharp point enables the instrument to be 

 inserted into a muscle, and before the whole is withdrawn the 

 hook is first protruded and then drawn into the ensheathing tube, 

 and, passing through a slot in the side of the tube, takes with it a 

 fragment of the muscle in which it was imbedded. Probably the 

 quantity thus removed would be too small for estimating the actual 

 amount of the diseased condition, but is useful to ascertain the fact 

 of the disease.) It is comforting to know that in this country the 

 disease is extremely rare, and that most of the meat brought to 

 English tables has been cooked at a temperature high enough to 

 kill all the T?'ickmcd that may have been present. 



One other unpleasant meat colonist is the " pork-measle," 

 which is the tape-worm in its larval state. The pig who houses 

 these larvae has swallowed the eggs in his food or water, and 

 after being hatched they have migrated from the viscera into the 

 tissues, enlarging and developing into ovoid hydatids. In 

 dimension these larvae vary from the size of a pea to that of 

 a bean, and they resemble bags of water, having this peculiarity, 



