TRICHINOUS INFECTION OF MAN AND ANIMALS. 163 



NATURAL HISTORY AXD PATHOLOGY OF THE TRICHIXOUS 

 INFECTION OF MAX AND ANIMALS. 



By Noah Cresset, M. D., V. S., Ph. D. 



Given at Farmers' Institute at Bryant's Pond. 



Amid the various sources for the transmission of disease from the 

 lower orders of animals to man, especial!}- those of a parasitic origin, 

 there is none more dangerous in character nor more loathsome and 

 foreboding than the one caused by the presence of minute worms in 

 the flesh of swine, which of course, in our present habits, we are ever 

 liable to consume. The increasing prevalence of this entozoic con- 

 tamination of one of our staple products of food has awakened new 

 zeal among the sanitarians both at home and abroad ; but until the 

 public mind is more enlightened on the subject, and the real nature 

 and symptoms of this almost intractable malady better understood, 

 we are ever liable to encounter new outbreaks, even under the most 

 favorable circumstances. 



In view, therefore, of the great liability of such a calamity within 

 the borders of your State, from want of adequate knowledge among 

 the people, we deem it expedient and opportune, on this occasion, 

 to treat the subject in detail, and thus set forth the natural history of 

 the parasite and discuss the morbid changes that occur in the animal 

 body when trichinous pork has been eaten in a raw or partially cooked 

 state. Such meat is now well known to be exceedingly dangerous 

 as an article of food, and often gives rise to one of the most obscure 

 and fatal maladies that the physician has to contend with in human 

 practice. Hence the necessity for the general diffusion of knowledge 

 that we may guard ourselves against this parasitic invasion and thus 

 more accurately scrutinize the intent of those sensational and ex- 

 aggerated reports from abroad, which have already unjustly compro- 

 mised the honor and activity of one of our leading industries. 



DISCOVERY OF THE TRICHINA SPIRALIS. 



This parasite was first described and named by Prof. Richard 

 Owen of London, in 1835 ; and though frequently seen by scien- 

 tific observers it was only regarded as a microscopic curiosity for 

 moi*e than a quarter of a centur}-. His attention had been indirectly 

 called to the subject some two years previously by John Hilton, 

 demonstrator of anatomy at Guy's Hospital M«dical College, who 

 had observed a peculiar appearance of human muscle, and thought 



