86 Tin Jrichma Spiralis. 



tion of the abdomen, and in Be vere cases painful colics. The 

 puke is always rapid, an. 1 the -kin hot. The patient hardly 

 ever « I i * ■ -s during this stage of the disease. The second 



period of muscular irritation is always present, unless the 

 number of Trichina ingested is very small. When we con- 



sider that each female gives birth to lour hundred or live 

 hundred young at least, we can -understand how a few 

 mouthfuls of the infected meat may give rise to millions of 

 little worms, each of which bores its way ad over tin- body 

 of the patient. This period usually lasts from four to five 

 weeks, and commences with languor and chills, followed by 

 pains in the limbs, and a puffy swelling of the eye-lids and 

 face, which is scarcely ever absent. This swelling often 

 attacks the upper and lower limbs as well as the face. The 

 muscular pains are very acute, and the slightest motion or 

 pressure produces extreme agony. The tongue becomes 

 swollen and painful, and the pulse rises from 115 to 130 

 per minute, while the diarrhoea often continues, and the 

 abdomen is tumid and tender. Sleep is almost entirely 

 destroyed, and the thirst becomes very urgent. There is 

 often a troublesome cough, which increases the pain and 

 soreness. During this period the patient, if he is able to 

 walk at all, does so upon his toes, as if unable to put his 

 heel to the ground. These symptoms usually abate after 

 from the twentieth to the fortieth day, but the patient 

 remains worn out and exhausted, and the third period, or 

 that of convalescence, is usually long. 



Unfortunately all cases do not reach the Btage of convales- 

 cence. Death often takes place during the second period, 

 or at the commencement o[' the third, and the patients die 

 with symptoms resembling those of a severe case of typhoid 



fever. 



Thus far it has always been observed that Trichinosis 

 in man ha- resulted from eating pork, but the hog is not 

 the only animal in which this parasite has been found 



