TRICHINIASIS OF MAN AND ANIMALS. 11 



the capsule begins about the fifth month subsequent to the invasion 

 of the muscles. 



It has been said by some observers that the trichinae capsules in 

 the hog do not calcify ; others affirm the contrary. The polari- 

 scope, however, will reveal the presence of calcareous salts in the 

 capsule if sufficient time has elapsed since invasion. The reason 

 they may not be easily recognized microscopically must be sought 

 in the influence on the salts of the fatty oils in the porcine organism, 

 which renders the crystals less visible. 



The Intestinal Trichinae. 



So long as the trichinae remain encapsulated in the fibers of the 

 muscle, their condition remains unchanged. They make no progress 

 in their development, irrespective of the number of years that they 

 may have been imprisoned. They have been seen in an active — i. e., 

 capable of progressive — development, under favorable conditions, 

 thirteen, twenty, and even twenty-four years from the time invasion 

 took place. 



a. In 1861 a woman was admitted into the hospital at Altona, Ger- 

 many, suffering from a mammary cancer, which had been develop- 

 ing some twelve years. On its removal and subjection of its tissues 

 to microscopic examination, the presence of trichinae in the muscle- 

 fibers was manifested. On inquiry, it was ascertained that in 1856 

 the woman had resided at Davenport, Iowa, where she was taken 

 suddenly very ill, gastric and rheumatic phenomena being the most 

 prominent of any, together with cedema of various parts and para- 

 lytic phenomena. Her brother, with whom she resided, was at- 

 tacked in a similar but less severe form at the same time. The 

 woman died at the Altona Hospital in 1864, and an examination of 

 her muscles revealed the presence of great numbers of encapsulated 

 trichinae. A cat fed with pieces of these muscles died in the course of 

 sixteen days, its muscles being repletely infected with these parasites. 



b. Yirchow reports a case where, after the lapse of thirteen years 

 and a half, the parasites moved in their capsules on prolonged ex- 

 posure to the heat of the sun. 



c. Klopsch reports a case of trichiniasis, with complete recovery, 

 which took place in 1842. The parasites were discovered in the 

 muscles of the individual twenty-four years afterward. This dis- 

 covery was also made on the excision of a mammary cancer. At 

 the same time that this woman was ill, two persons in the same 

 house became sick under similar conditions. Both died. (Yirchow's 

 " Archiv," Bd. 35, p. 609.) 



