1889.] PUBLIC DOCUMENT — No. 34. 127 



below the average degree of* infection (0^ per cent.) out- 

 weigh those which exceed it, would tend to diminish the 

 average degree of infection for the whole body, and conse- 

 quently to raise the ratio of the infection in the diaphragm 

 to that of the Avholc body. I believe, then, in view of 

 these two results, that one will not greatly err in assuming 

 that the pillars of the diaphragm are at most five times as 

 thoroughly infected as are the muscles of the body in gen- 

 eral. But, even with this difference between the pillars and 

 the other muscles of the body, there would still be in the 

 mildest case here recorded not less than 70,000 encapsuled 

 worms ; a number which implies that they are the progeny 

 of at least 46 fertile females, — reckoning the total offspring 

 of each female at 1,500. 



It is known that both embryos and gravid females are 

 capable of living outside a host (^. e., in faeces) only a 

 short time, probably never more than twenty-four hours. 

 (Leuckai-t, <*Menschl. Parasiten," Bd. II., p. 558.) 



That sexually mature females (t. e., intestinal trichinae), 

 as well as embryos, are occasionally eliminated from the 

 intestine of an infected pig, has been shown by a number 

 of observers (Leuckart, Kiihn, Vogel, Gerlach, et ah See 

 Leuckart, '* Menschl. Parasiten," Bd. II., p. 557) ; but it is 

 still questionable whether the adult worms are able to with- 

 stand the action of the digestive fluids of the stomach when 

 they are imported into a second host. Leuckart {op. cit., p. 

 557-561) has discussed this point at some length ; and, not 

 only from the absence of satisfactory proof in the case of 

 trichina), but also on general grounds, doubts the possibility 

 of infection in that manner. If the sexually mature females of 

 trichinje were capable of withstanding the digestive fluids of a 

 new host, they would form an exception, he says, to all other 

 helminths, none of which are capable of enduring at that 

 stage of their existence a change of host. 1 believe, then, 

 that one is safe in assuming that a degree of infection which 

 implies the importation of 46 gravid females precludes the 

 explanation suggested. The importation of 70,000 separate 

 embryos through faeces seems to me to be an equjdly un- 

 reasonable assumption, even admitting that the embryos 

 are more capable than adults of resisting the digestive fluids 

 in the stomach of the second host. 



