32 THE DISEASES OF DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 



2. Boards of liealtli should instigate exact statistical researches 

 into tlie percentage of trichiniasis among swine raised in their re- 

 spective States, as well as the hygienic conditions under which hogs 

 are raised, in relation to this and other diseases. 



3. Continued examinations of rats should be made in all parts 

 of the country, and their slaughter encouraged in every legal way. 

 In this regard we can look upon the rat-pit as serving a public pur- 

 pose ; and the rat-invasion theory, with reference to hogs, will re- 

 ceive a final settlement. 



4. All sick swine should be peremptorily isolated from healthy 

 ones, under the supervision of a competent veterinary inspector. 



5. All swine suffering from diarrhoea should be isolated, and 

 singly. The greatest care should be taken in cleansing the pens of 

 such sw^ine from all fecal masses and refuse. 



a. The fseces from such swine should be subjected to micro- 

 scopic examination. 



h. On cessation of the diarrhoea, whether motor disturbances 

 appear or not, the muscles, tongue, etc., should be harpooned, and 

 the specimens thus gained subjected to microscopic examination. 



6. Hogs in which trichinse had been found should be branded 

 and fattened singly, or together ; but they should never be allowed 

 to be sold for human food. Their lard could be tried out and sold. 



7. All hog-pens should be kept scrupulously clean, and the turn- 

 ing of compost-heaps, or the drains from water-closets or houses. 

 Into hog-pens should be forbidden by law. 



8. Feeding the offal from slaughtered swine to others, cooked or 

 uncooked, or having slaughter-houses over places where swine are 

 kept, should be forbidden by law. 



9. Each State should have a board of animal hygiene, and a corps 

 of competently educated veterinary police. 



The Microscopic Examiitation of Pork. 



Numerous elaborate essays have been written upon this subject ; 

 but the entire process is so easy and simple, that such extended 

 labor can well be looked upon as useless. 



Among the first, and at the same time most profusely invaded 

 muscles, are the so-called "pillars of the diaphragm." They are 

 always to be found as two small stumps of muscles — flesh — imme- 

 diately below the kidneys in the dressed hog when hung up to 

 " cool out," or in front of them when the hog is laid down. If 

 there are any trichinse in the organism, examples will surely be 

 found here. These pieces belong to the trimmings, and their re- 



