178 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [June 



taking about five rows regularly through the field, scratching and picking 

 around every hill, then returning p.nd taking another five rows, until 

 thinking they were pulling up the corn, he shot one and then examined 

 the field. On the ground they had been over, he found but one stalk of 

 corn disturbed, but in the quail's crop he found one cut worm, twenty- 

 one striped vine bugs, over a hundred chintz bugs that he could dis- 

 tinctly count, and a mass apparently consisting of hundreds of chintz 

 bugs, but not one kernel of corn. During the past five years the quails 

 in that vicinity have been decreasing, and the chintz bug iucreaaing. 



It will thus be seen, from what has been said regarding the 

 habits of those humble animals, toads and birds, what great 

 services they render to man in the economy of nature, and will, 

 it is hoped, tend to show that it is the duty of all, especially of 

 agriculturists, to preserve such valuable animals. 



ON TRICHINA SPIRALIS. 



By J. Baker Edwards, Ph. D., F. 0. S., 



(Late Lecturer on Chemistry and Medical Jurisprudence at the Royal 

 Infirmary School of Medicine, Liverpool, England. 



The occurrence of two fatal cases of Trichiniasis at Hamilton, 

 Ont., and the successful treatment of several cases in Montreal, 

 have drawn fresh attention to the parasite causing this disease; 

 and as the researches into its natural history are somewhat 

 scattered, it is thought a short resumi may not be uninteresting 

 to our readers. 



The cysts containing this parasite, and forming its sarcophagus 

 in the flesh, were observed and examined microscopically by 

 Tiedman in 1822. These were found in human muscle after 

 death, and occasioned much speculation as to their real nature. 

 In 1835 they were minutely examined by Mr. James Paget, and 

 described and named by Professor Owen;* but as there then 

 existed no clue to their natural history, they for some years 

 possessed no interest beyond the fact of their existence in human 

 muscle, and their classification as a genus of Entozoa; belong- 

 ing to the order, Ccelelmintha ; family, Nematoidea. Herbst 

 found, in 1841, that dogs, when fed upon parts of a badger 

 containing these worms, became infested with them in their 

 muscles. But it remained for Zenker, in 1860, to show that 

 the human body becomes infected with these parasites in 



• Trans. Liuueau Socy., LXXX., LXXXIY. 



