TRICmNIASIS OF MAN AND ANIMALS. 7 



"While this seems to be tlie opinion of almost all observers, 

 durin<^ my observations in 1879, and again in ISSl, I frequently 

 found encupsuled trichiniii in the midsit of purely adipose tissue, 

 hetween muscle-Jibers of very fat hogs ; iiever^ however, in the adi- 

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

 ers have rei^orted 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 20, 1881, the author, with the custom- 

 ary ignorance and consequent impudence of an American politician, 

 says, in answer to the question, " Are trichintii 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 heen found in fat. I 

 should rather see than believe without so doing.''^ 



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. Xo 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 CBsophageal muscles of a rabbit 

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

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

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

 when one passed from the fibers ])roper 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 masticator}* muscles are especially 

 favored. The muscles of the rump are more profusely invaded 



