1893.] 



MICROSCOPICAL JOURNAL. 



155 



parasite, the male, in its full\- developed and sexually mature con- 

 dition, measuring about i-i8th of an inch, while the perfectly 

 developed females, which are ten times as numerous as the oppo- 

 site sex, are over double that length. Their bodies are round and 

 taper slightly from the middle toward each end. The head is 

 narrow, finely pointed, unarmed, and with a central minute oral 

 aperture. The mode of reproduction is viviparous. As usually 

 found it is encased in its protecting capsule, which is about 1-140 

 by i-i30th of an inch in diameter. These cysts or capsules are 

 sometimes visible to the naked eye, as represented in Fig. 3, 

 measuring i-iooth inch in width by i-6oth inch in length, while 

 the worm itself, stretched out, is abo. t i-3Sth of an inch long by 

 I -500th of an inch wide at the middle of body. 



The human eye is capable of separating lines i-30othof an inch 

 apart without the aid of a lens, so you may know that by trans- 

 mitted light, and in thin sections of meat, these capsules may be 

 readily observed. They appear like small round dots, granules, 

 vesiculae, or streaks, grayish white, and quite distinct from the 

 red, transparent muscle. When numerous, they sometimes im- 

 part a specked appearance to the meat. They can be readily 

 seen by the aid of the 

 microscope under an 

 amplification of 75 

 diameters, and are 

 well illustrated (en- 

 capsulated) in Fig. 3, 

 which is an isolated 

 specimen chosen to 

 show the character- 

 istic appearance of tlie 

 closed capsule. This 

 is the form in which 

 they usually exist in 

 infected meat and are 

 taken into the human 

 stomach. When meat 

 containing such en- 

 cysted trichinae is eat- 

 en, the action of the ^ . 



dri • 1 1 • Fig. 2. — Human flesh magnified 75 diameters showing 



IgeStiye fluids, bemg Trichinae in capsule. 



acid, dissolves or soft- 

 ens the capsules, which is of a calcareous or lime consist- 

 ence, and the animal heat of the body animates the parasite to 

 renewed exei'tion, so that it bursts thecapsule (Fig. 3) and escapes 

 into the intestinal canal, where it enters upon an active career, 

 increasing in size and sexual activity. 



About the second day after their introduction, the intestinal 

 trichinae attain their maturity, lose their spiral shape, and become 

 stretched, while they grow rapidly in sexual activity. Most 



