28 THE DISEASES OF DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 



are killed for home consumption, but also where they are fattened 

 and killed by the farmer, or raised for the use of his family. 



This report says further ; " This refuse from slaughtered sioine 

 at such large estdblishments is sold to the neighboring farmers as 

 food to fatten their swine, and thus helps to swell the jpercentage of 

 trichiniasis in American hogs." 



This is fcdse also ! 



The report ends as follows : " It is therefore right to warn the 

 people against the consumption of American pork" — and recom- 

 mends the most stringent microscopic examination of the same. 



The Disease in Swine.* 



ITumerous feeding experiments with trichinous flesh were made 

 at the Berlin school, the results being given in an able j^aper by 

 Professor Mueller. It was proved that the consumption of such 

 flesh by swine, with the sequential development of the embryos in 

 their intestines, and their migration and lodgment in the muscles, 

 may indeed cause disease, but that the phenomena of the same have 

 neither that constancy nor distinctness of character which will ad- 

 mit of its recognition during the life of the animal. 



All the swine thus fed became ill within a few days after con- 

 suming the meat. 



The following were the most constant phenomena j)resented : 



Diarrhoea, but not constant, being frequently interrupted by the 

 passage of more solid f[fices; sometimes it did not come to pass 

 at all. 



Phenomena, indicating abdominal pains, were frequently ob- 

 served ; such as uneasiness, burying themselves in the straw, etc. 



Such phenomena, either singly or collectively, may be observed 

 in swine, entirely aside from any anticipatory trichin-infection. 

 They simply indicate the action of some irritant within the intes- 

 tinal canal, and in this case, it being trichinae, if the swine die, or 

 are killed, we should have the same phenomena as in an intestinal 

 catarrh of like grade, plus the trichinse, which could not, however, 

 be recognized macroscopically. 



"With the gradual cessation of the migration by the trichinae, the 

 abdominal symptoms become less marked, and finally disappear, to 

 be followed by those indicating some disturbance of the motor 

 functions. If the latter do not lead to death, they in their turn 

 gradually cease with the encapsulation of the parasites. 



Although the presence of trichinte within the intestines causes 

 * Taken from the "Magazin f. d. gesammte Thierheilkunde," vol. xxxi, p. 6. 



