168 BOARD OF AORICULTURE. 



these worms may wander in the same track, and ultimately be en- 

 closed in one lump of exuded matter. 



This parasite, which undoubtedly infects a large number of ani- 

 mals, has frequently been found in the rat, mouse, cat, hedgehop, 

 fox, mole, and hog, and is liable to be transmitted from one car- 

 nivorous animal to another through the meat. The Commission of 

 the Royal College of Physicians of Vienna report that the main 

 course of the infection in the hog is from the rat. and nearly one- 

 half of all these vermin examined in Moravia were found infected 

 with the encysted trichinae ; and it is not improbable, as Fleming 

 observes, that the rats were primarily infected and have thus trans- 

 mitted these parasites from one generation to another by virtue of 

 their carnivorous habit at trnies to devour each other.* 



TRTCHINIASIS IN ANIMALS. 



The history and symptoms of this disease in the lower animals have 

 not received that attention, in a sanitary point of view, which the 

 importance of the subject demands. That the malad\' in question 

 has often been mistaken for "hog cholera," which at a certain stage 

 it so much resmbles, no one can doubt. In fact, many of the symp- 

 toms of the swine plague are so closely allied to those seen in experi- 

 mental cases of trichinal infection that it must be exceedingly difficult 

 at times, if not impossible, to draw the line of demarcation which 

 pathologically separates these two diseases, without a careful micro- 

 scopic examination. It therefore becomes germane in the considera- 

 tion of our theme to note some of the more prominent features of this 

 parasitic affection that have been observed in experimental animals. 



Professor Gerlachj of the Berlin Veterinary School found that pigs 

 from three to six months old became much more easily infected than 

 those of a more mature age. In mild cases, the symptoms were not 

 characteristic of such intestinal disturbance. The appetite, though 

 somewhat capricious, was soon regained and the animal resumed its 

 usual habits of life again. 



But in more severe cases, where a larger amount of trichinized 

 food has been given, the s^^mptoms were well marked and of a two- 

 fold character. The loss of appetite, occasional vomiting, and the 

 general depression that ensued always served to indicate the initial 



*Veterinary Sanitary Science. 



tSee his able paper on the subject in the 7th Public Health Report of the Privy Council, 

 London, 1863. 



