92 AN HOUR AT 



and Bristowe. A scourge to man, due to neglect of sanitary 

 conditions ! In my neighbourhood is a Pig Club, the cottagers 

 belonging to which, by paying small subscriptions, mutually insure 

 against total loss when one of their pigs die. They have their 

 own butcher, specially retained to exercise his calling at any hour 

 of the day or night, when " piggie " is seen to be " in extremis.''^ 

 I have known instances where animals have died before he could 

 reach them, and where, judging from all that I can now remember 

 concerning the symptoms, there could be little reasonable doubt 

 that Trichinosis was the cause of death. And what became of 

 the animals so suffering, and killed " in time ? " Too often they 

 were sent to market, or otherwise disposed of, and the mischief 

 they may have been the cause of, or that may be done in this 

 way, no human being can tell. 



Proboscis of Tortoise Tick (Plate 9). — This object is one 

 most difficult to procure, and the best way is for the owner to cut 

 it out of its moorings himself The Proboscis is the Labium or 

 upper lip, modified for the requirements of the creature, and it 

 differs in appearance very considerably in the different species of 

 Ticks. The drawing is that of the mouth of Tick from common 

 Tortoise, I have consulted also a slide of Ixodes (purchased), 

 said to have been taken from a Magpie. Both are balsam-mounted, 

 both crushed down ; but so far as I can read them in their 

 present state, all agree in saying this — that the mucrones (tooth- 

 like points) are on the undej- surface of the labium. This is 

 buried in the host by an operation which may be described as 

 follows : — Did you ever see a Mole working its way into the 

 earth ? It is a highly curious and instructive operation. The 

 hands— a combination of digging-fork, shovel, and scavenger's 

 brush in one — deave the earth asunder ; whilst the nose, armed 

 with its special bone, and densely-ossified nasal cartilages, is 

 pushed forwards with a motion alternating from side to side, and 

 the creature, under favourable circumstances, disappears almost 

 in a twinkling. I had recently a capital opportunity of watching 

 one in an enfeebled condition under a large bell-glass, so that I 

 was able to observe the whole process thoroughly. 



Well, the Ticks having found their victim, attach themselves 

 thereto by the help of suckers, almost circular in outline, with one 

 of which each of the eight limbs terminates. Then the mandi- 

 bles, or maxillae, or both combined (figured on either side the 

 labium in my sketch, see PI. 9, m.m.), pus/i aside, as it were, the fleshy 

 with instruments like a veterinary surgeon's " fleam," and a three- 

 prong fork, having the "tines" bent sideways on the handle. 

 The saw (labium) is then introduced, and by a little gentle motion 

 backwards and forwards of the body on its fixed supports, it soon 



