32 



blood-vessels and lymphatics, and so permeated the system. 

 Virchow saw them in the mesenteric glands. It seems certain, 

 however, that they pass straight tlu'ough the bowel, as they have 

 been found in the intestinal wall, in the abdominal cavity and in 

 the connective tissue near. In the pig, death has occurred from 

 perforation of the bowel and subsequent Peritonitis, when a large 

 number of the worms have passed through at one spot. The 

 mouth being unarmed, they do not appear to be possessed of 

 any special apparatus for the purpose Bristowe speaks of— their 

 eating their way thi-ough. Althaus thinks that as the head can 

 be formed into a sharp point, they can, owing to their extreme 

 minuteness, push their way between the fibres of the intestinal 

 wall. After their escape from the intestine, they travel along in 

 the course of the intermuscular connective tissue to their final 

 destination. 



It was in the year 1860, that the disease Trichinosis was first 

 observed ; up to that time the Trichina, as I have remarked before, 

 were supposed to be quite harmless. The discovery was made in 

 this wise. In January, 1860, a servant girl aged about 20, was 

 admitted into the Dresden Hospital, under the care of Professor 

 Zenker. Her illness dated from the previous Christmas. She 

 was suifering from depression, loss of appetite and feverishness, 

 and the case was set down as Typlioid. Considerable doubt soon 

 arose, for after a short time, the whole of her muscles became the 

 seat of excruciating pain, and the limbs were contracted and could 

 not be extended. CEdema of the legs followed, and she died of 

 Pneumonia, on the twenty-eighth day. Into the details of the 

 2)ost-mortem I need not enter, except to say that the muscles con- 

 tained a large number of Trichinte, which in this case also infested 

 the heart, a very unusual circumstance. Professor Zenker then 

 found out that the illness came on soon after the killing of some 

 pigs at a farmhouse, where the patient resided. He went to the 

 house, where he was able to obtain some ham and sausages made 

 from these pigs. The specimens were found to be full of encysted 

 Trichinte. He further ascertained that the housekeeper and all 

 the farm servants had been sufiering in the same way. The butcher 

 who killed the pigs was also suffering fi'om what was set do^\Ti as 

 Rheumatism, the result of catching cold on the day the pig was 

 killed. He had, however, tasted some of the raw meat. 



The evidence derived from this series of cases was quite con- 



