30 



infested with an encapsuled worm. It is supposed to belong to 

 man exclusively, and not to give rise to any symptoms. It may 

 be well to stop here for a moment and describe the appearances 

 noticed. Cobbold says — As commonly observed in the human 

 body, the Trichinse appear as spirally coiled worms in the 

 interior of globular, oval or lemon-shaped cysts, which latter appear 

 as minute specks scarcely visible to the naked eye. These specks 

 resemble little particles of lime, being more or less calcareous, 

 according to the degeneration which the walls have undergone. 

 They measure on an average l-78th in. in length by l-130th in. 

 in breadth. It must be understood that the capsule belongs to the 

 host rather than the guest, and is the result partially, at any rate 

 of the irritation set up by the worm. Before the calcareous 

 deposit takes place the cysts cannot be seen at all by the naked eye. 

 The number of cysts found in any one indvidual, varies in each 

 case, but it is very large. Dr. Coupland brought a case before the 

 Pathological Society, in 1874, in which the number was estimated 

 at 75 millions ; this, I ought to say, is an unusually large number. 

 The Capsuled Trichinae measure about l-25th in. in length by 

 1-630 in. in breadth, and those who are fond of figures will be 

 interested to know that it has been computed that 35 millions of 

 them are required to weigh a drachm. 



Proceeding again with our history, we have little to record for 

 several years, beyond the fact that every Kttle while ft-esh cases 

 were observed in which these cysts existed in the muscles. Mr. 

 Curling reported two such in the year following Owen's paper. In 

 the year 1847, however, Leidy stated at a meeting of the Academy 

 of Sciences of Philadelphia, that he had lately detected the existence 

 of an Entozoon in some of the muscles of a pig. The cysts he sup- 

 poses to be the same as those of the Trichina Spiralis, hitherto con- 

 sidered peculiar to the human species. Another step gained. Six 

 years after this, Herbst stated that in dissecting a hadyer, he had 

 found its voluntary muscles fuU of Trichinae. He fed three 

 puppies on the flesh, and they all became Trichinised. He thus 

 fij'st established the fact that Trichinae could be conveyed from one 

 animal to another by food, but he did not attempt to decide how 

 they got into the muscles. In the following year, Bristowe and 

 Eainey unable to divest themselves of the theory of spontaneous 

 generation, expressed the opinion that the Trichina was generated 

 from a change in the fat cells between the muscular fibres. 



