6 SMITH, ON MEASLED TOKK. 



The " measles " in the specimens supplied to me were all 

 visible to the naked eye, the cysts when inflated being of an 

 elliptical form, and liaAdng an average length of about one 

 third of an inch. 



The coil of the enclosed worm was nearly globular, Avith 

 an average diameter of aboiit one tenth of an inch. 



In the "slightly measled" pork the size of the worm was 

 often less than in the "badly measled," but in every case 

 the Cysticercus seemed to have reached the same degree of 

 organic growth, and in none of the specimens, " healthy " 

 or otherwise, could I detect the slightest trace of the animal 

 in an earlier stage of development. Had the eggs, or young 

 animals, existed, they could not have escaped my notice. In 

 the specimens marked " healthy " there was no trace what- 

 ever of the Cysticercus. 



The muscular tissues at a little distance fi'om the cysts did 

 not present any distinct alteration in their nonnal and 

 healthy character, but in the immediate neighbourhood of 

 the cysts there were evident traces of the altered or diseased 

 condition of muscle known to physiologists under the name 

 of ''fatty degeneration." Where the "measles" are nume- 

 rous fatty degeneration would be proportionally great in com- 

 parison with the amount of healthy muscle. 



In the salted specimen the cysts were empty of fluid, and 

 the " assimilating cellules " in the body of the worm had be- 

 come somewhat opaque, presenting a central granular nucleus 

 instead of the clear transparent appearance noticed in tlie 

 fresh specimens. I conclude from this that the life of the 

 Cysticercus is destroyed by the process of " curing." Fig. 7 

 shows the appearance of the assimilating cellules in iha fresh, 

 and fig. 8 in the cured specimens. 



It is maintained by the most eminent physiologists of the 

 present day, that the Cysticercus of the pig is the " scolex," 

 that is, the intermediate or arrested condition of the " Tcenia 

 solium/' or tape-worm of man and other mammalia. 



The organization of the Cysticercus, as above described, 

 goes far to establish this opinion, and direct experiments in- 

 stituted upon dogs and other quadrupeds fed upon fresh 

 " measled " pork seems to place it beyond a doubt. 



In the present case there was neither time nor opportunity 

 to verify this theory by direct experiment. 



The history of the early condition and future development 

 of the Cysticercus, the pathological and hygienic deductions 

 to be drawn from the above observations, and their bearing 

 upon the wholesomeiiess or otherwise of fresli, cured, or 

 cooked " measled " pork arc questions which appertained to 



