82 



DISEASES OF MUSCLES AND TENDONS. 



gradually, and with it the feebleness and low-spiritedness of the calf, 

 which now retained a recumbent position most of the time, being 

 scarcely able to rise without aid, and eating only mash with ground 

 corn. Diarrhoea commenced, the temperature fell gradually, and on the 

 twenty-third day the animal died. The temperature had fallen to 

 38'2° C. During the last few days the calf was unable to rise ; in fact, 

 it could scarcely raise its head to lick the mash placed before it. Pulse 

 was reduced by ten beats. On the last day the heart-beats were very 

 much slower, yet firm, and could be plainly felt. Several days before 



death the breathing was laboured, and 

 on the last day there was extreme 

 dyspnoea." 



Diagnosis. In forming a diagnosis 

 we meet with the same difficulty as in 

 the case of the pig. It is always easy 

 to examine the tongue ; but when 

 visible lesions are absent diagnosis in 

 the case of the ox remains doubtful 

 and problematical even more than in 

 the pig. 



In the carcase, diagnosis is much 

 easier. The cysts are sought for, 

 as in the pig, by making sections of 

 muscle, those usually selected being 

 the pterygoid, cervical, cardiac, and 

 psoas muscles, and those of the 

 quarters. 



Prognosis. The prognosis is grave, 

 not indeed for the infected animals, 

 which seem little injured by the para- 

 site, but for human beings, who run 

 the risk of contracting Tcenia inermis 

 by eating insufficiently-cooked meat. 

 A temperature of 115° to 120° Fahr. destroys the cysticerci, but in 

 roast meats the central temperature of the mass always remains below 

 this figure. 



Salting for fifteen to twenty days destroys the vitality of the parasite. 

 Lesions. The lesions are confined to the presence of the cyst and 

 of two little zones of chronic inflammation immediately surrounding it. 

 Unless heavily infested the subjects fatten just as well as others. 



The vesicles are semi-transparent, -f^ inch to \ inch in length, slightly 

 ovoid in form, and contain a taenia head with four suckers, but without 

 hooks. 



Fig. 42. — Apex, dorsal, and lateral 

 views of the head of beef-measle 

 tapeworm (Tcsnia saginata), show- 

 ing a depression in the centre of the 

 apex. X 17. (Stiles, Report U.S.A. 

 Bureau of Agriculture, 1901.) 



