38 QUARTERLY CHRONICLE. 



Amongst tlic animals (which other observers say are in- 

 habited by psorospermian vesicles) the author has found 

 them in the deer, ox, mouse, rat, and i:)ig, but never in the 

 liuman body. He ahvays found them inhabiting the trans- 

 versely-striped muscles, and in no other organ or texture. 

 They are, like the Trichin, found in great numbers at 

 the commencement of the tendon of the muscle. If in large 

 numbers, they are found in almost every muscle of the animal. 

 It is also to be remarked that where they are few and small, 

 they occur chiefly in the peritoneal covering and the regions 

 about the stomach. According to the size of the vesicles so 

 is the number ; where they are few they are small — from a 

 quarter to one line in length ; and where numerous, larger, 

 even two inches long. As to the exact time of year 

 of their appearance the author is imcertain, for he was not 

 able to carry on his observations during a whole year. He can 

 only say that in the early months of last year he examined a 

 great many animals, and found numbers of the cysts both in 

 rats and pigs, whereas in the following summer until August 

 he found none ; but from August to October they appeared 

 again, though only of the small or very smallest size. To 

 prove the manner in which these parasites are communicated, 

 he made numerous experiments, placing them in wet earth, 

 in sugar-water, and leaving the flesh in which they were 

 found to putrify or to dry ; but in all these experiments the 

 sacculi perished, or rather the contents, vrhich underwent a 

 sort of granular disintegration, usually even before the mus- 

 cular structure itself had disappeared. He then tried feeding 

 different animals on flesh which contained them, but when 

 these were opened he simply found remains of the vesicles in 

 the stomach, but no trace of them in the muscles. 



Although these results were all negative, and although he 

 has not met with any of the granular bodies in the flesh of 

 the heart, Avliich Hessling believes to be the young stage, the 

 author thinks that the different sacculi, which are found in 

 various animals, simply indicate degrees of age, which are 

 distinguished by the absence of cilia and the comparative 

 abundance of the si^herical or of the reniform corpuscles. 



Since he has ascertained from direct observation that the 

 reniform or fusiform corpuscles are developed in the spherical 

 cells above noticed, from which they arc subsequently 

 liberated, and, moreover, since in the sacculi of the smallest 

 size only these spherical cells with miiform granular contents 

 arc met with, there can be no doubt that those sacculi, in which 

 the spherical cells predominate, are younger than those contain- 

 ing the fusiform corpuscles, liut it is precisely the sacculi, 

 futhe former condition, which are almost invariably furnished 



