184 THe Microscope. 
THE AMERICAN HOG—HIS INSPECTION A NECESSITY ; 
OR, TRICHINA AND PUBLIC HEALTH. 
BY T. B. REDDING, A. M., PH. D., F. R. M. S. 
In 1881 I examined twenty hogs and found trichine in two, 
one of them exceedingly full; in 1882 I examined twenty-five 
and found but one that contained any of the parasites. Last 
year I examined, at various times during the year, fifteen, and 
found one that contained trichine; these were hogs that had 
been killed and were sold on our market. I also, during the 
past winter, examined the muscles of three hogs that had died 
and were left on the street afew days, and found trichinz in 
each of them in great abundance; they were fed in very dirty 
pens and where rats greatly abounded. 
These parasites have been found in the flesh of man, the 
hog, the cats, rats, mice. the hippopotamus and other animals. 
Two or three years ago, while examining a piece of one of the 
pectoral muscles of a frog, which had been caught in the branch 
that carries away the water of our pork-house, I discovered it 
full of trichinze. I believe this is the first instance where the 
parasite has been discovered in the frog. The hippopotamus 
had been fed offal at the zoological gardens of New York, and 
doubtless contracted the parasite in that manner. 
Two years ago acat, living at my barn, had five kittens. 
When the kittens were about eight weeks old the mother sick- 
ened and died; about the same time the kittens also became 
sick, and one after another died. I examined pieces of the 
muscles of the mother and each of the kittens, as they died, 
and in all I found vast multitudes of encysted and encysting 
trichine, and great numbers of free trichinze in the stomach 
and intestines. A short time before the mother-cat sickened, I 
found her and her kittens making-a meal off a large rat which 
she had killed, and which was probably the source of infection. 
Recently I received a small piece of human muscle, from 
Dr. C. H. Stowell, of the Michigan State University, and editor 
of the ‘“ Microscope,” at Ann Arbor, which is very full of para- 
sites. I have a specimen of it here, mounted, ready for exam- 
ination under the microscope, which contains thirteen encysted 
trichinz. If the person from whom this muscle was taken was 
