STRONG YLUS TETRACANTHUS. Slo 



. Mr. Cawthron of Hadlow lias found these 'parasites enveloped 

 in cysts of vegetable debris. 



Treatment. — In the cases treated in 1874 we were successful 

 in every instance by administering two-drachm doses of the oil 

 of turpentine night and morning, along with eggs and milk well 

 beaten up. The eggs and milk were administered, not only for 

 the reason that they form a good vehicle for turpentine, but to 

 afford nourishment and support to the debilitated animals. 



This is a very interesting subject, requiring further investiga- 

 tion, and it may turn out that the larger worms are a more 

 mature form of the smaller specimens, or that they are a distinct 

 form altogether. 



TRIGIIINOSIS. 



The Trichina spiralis is a minute round-worm, measuring about 

 ■jV of an inch in length, originally found in the muscular tissue 

 of pigs, eels, cats, dogs, badgers, hedgehogs, pigeons, poultry, 

 moles, crows, vultures, &c., and transmissible by ingestion of 

 trichinosed flesh to other animals, and to man ; but, according 

 to some observers, carnivorous birds are exempt from the in- 

 vasion of the parasite. The anterior extremity of the worm is 

 rather pointed, its posterior thick and rounded ; has immature 

 sexual organs, and lies coiled up in an oval cyst. The cyst, 

 which measures about -^ of an inch in length, appears to be no 

 essential part of the worm, but forms around it after it has taken 

 up its location ; the walls of the cyst are laminated, transparent, 

 and thick, generally studded externally vnth calcareous matter. 



The trichina cysts occupy the striated muscular tissue, and in 

 some specimens it has been estimated that each cubic inch of 

 the striped muscles of an infected hog may contain from thirteen 

 to thirty-five thousand worms. The cysts appear in the muscles 

 as minute white grains, visible to the naked eye, and with their 

 long diameter corresponding to the direction of the muscular 

 fibres. In a cat experimented upon by Leuckart each ounce of 

 muscle was calculated to contain 325,000 trichinae; and Dr. 

 Cobbold estimates that a man of medium bulk may easily 

 hrrbour 20,000,000. Dr. Belltield and Mr. Atwood, at Chicago, 

 fed a rat, weighing two ounces, with infected pork in small 

 quantities every two or three days for six weeks. No impair- 

 ment in the health of the rat resulted ; it was then killed, and 



