TRICHINIASIS OF MAN AND ANIMALS. 7 



While this seems to be the opinion of almost all observers, 

 during my observations in 1879, and again in 1881, I frequently 

 found encapsuled trichinae in the midst of purely adipose tissue, 

 between muscle-fibers of very fat hogs ; never, however, in the adi- 

 pose tissue which lies upon musculature. Since then, other observ- 

 ers have reported the same thing. In a letter, read at the ninth 

 annual meeting of the American Public Health Association, held 

 at Savannah, Georgia, in 1881, emanating from the Department of 

 Agriculture, dated October 29, 1881, the author, with the custom- 

 ary ignorance and consequent impudence of an American politician, 

 says, in answer to the question, " Are trichinae found in the fat ? " 

 " I have until now thought not. Professor Taylor, of this depart- 

 ment, tells me that in the ' Journal of the Microscopical Associa- 

 tion ' he has recently seen that they have been found in fat. I. 

 should rather see than believe without so doing P 



I think this is easily explained. The great amount of fatty in- 

 filtration had caused absorption of the plasma, and atrophy of the 

 fibers by compression, which was, however, resisted by the greater 

 density of the sarcolemma in the vicinity of the parasite, and also 

 by the latter itself. No other explanation seems to me possible, for 

 the capsules were comparatively perfect. 



The encapsuled parasites may be met with in the striated mus- 

 cles of all parts of the body, such as the digital muscles, those of 

 the abdominal walls, of the extremities, the eye, the ear, the larynx 

 and pharynx, the tongue, oesophagus, and the diaphragm ; but the 

 heart seems to be a favored locality, for they have only been found 

 in its flesh in very isolated cases. 



In making examinations of the oesophageal muscles of a rabbit 

 that had been fed with infected pork, I was much struck with the 

 abruptness with which I met trichinae, in passing in review a mi- 

 croscopical section of the oesophageo-cardiac portion of the stomach, 

 when one passed from the fibers proper to the stomach to those of 

 the oesophagus ; in fact, trichinae could be seen in the striated fibers 

 of the latter, where they intruded between the non-striated of the 

 former ; but in no case were there any to be seen in the smooth, or 

 inorganic fibers. 



These parasites are not, however, equally distributed over the 

 musculature of the autosite, but, on the contrary, appear to have 

 their favorite places of abode. They have a predilection for the 

 muscles of the anterior part of the body; of these, those of the 

 tongue, larynx and pharynx, and masticatory muscles are especially 

 favored. The muscles of the rump are more profusely invaded 



