48 



THE AMERICAN MONTHLY 



[Marc 



'i^ 



dead within them. These capsules 

 do not present exactly the same ap- 

 pearance as under normal circum- 

 stances, as may be seen by comparing 

 Figs.' 8 and 9. 



In other cases the calcification is 

 of such a character as to almost en- 

 tirely change the appearance of the 

 capsules and contents (See Figs. 10 

 and 11). 



In some cases cysticerci (measles) 

 perish and become calcified ; but 

 these formations are very much larger 

 than those of trichinae, and are often 

 filled with a caseous mass. The 

 "sacks of Rainey," or, as they are 

 sometimes called, " psorospermia," 

 (Fig. 12) are elongated bodies, like 

 the trichinae, situated within the sarco- 

 lemma, the true nature and pathologi- 

 cal importance of which are not yet 

 well determined. Some of the points 

 distinguishing them from trichinae 

 are, that by the latter the striation of 

 the muscle-fibre, or better the plasma, 

 sarcous elements, is destroyed within 

 that part of the sarcolemma which is 

 included in the capsule of the tri- 

 china : by the psorosperms, however, 

 it is retained, and only displaced by 

 the object itself, limiting it on each 

 side, and continuing directly from its 

 poles. Bruch, Virchow, and Leuckart 

 have described peculiar roundish or 

 oval masses of a whitish color, of 

 variable dimensions, which occasion- 

 ally appear in the flesh of hams. The 

 same have been microscopically de- 

 monstrated to consist of agglomerates 

 of needle-like crystals (Tyrosin, Fig. 

 13). They fill the muscle-fibres to a 

 variable degree, without otherwise 

 disturbing its structure, and disap- 

 pear upon treatment with muriatic 

 acid, the normal transverse striation 

 again becoming apparent. 



Trichinae in Man. — It has been 

 previously stated, that for some thir- 

 ty years subsequent to the first de- 

 scription of the capsule by Hilton, 

 and some twenty-five years after 

 the identification of the parasite 

 itself in man, the same were looked 

 upon as mere harmless curiosities, 



and, that, although Leidy discovered 

 the parasite in the flesh of swine in 

 1847, still it was not until i860 that 

 the connection was established be- 

 tween them, appearing, as they had, 

 in two totally different species (men 

 and swine). The honor of this im- 

 portant discovery belongs to Dr. Zen- 

 ker of Dresden, Germany. The dis- 

 ease was discovered in a servant- 

 girl admitted as a typhus patient to 

 the City Hospital in Dresden. She 

 died, and her flesh was found to be 

 completely infested with trichinae. 



Leuckart's and other experiments 

 have shown that a temperature of 

 140** F. is neccessary to securely ren- 

 der trichinae inert. Direct heat ap- 

 plied to the slides holding specimens 

 of trichinous pork, by means of the 

 Schultz heating-table, has demon- 

 strated, under the microscope, that a 

 temperature of 50° C. (122" F.) is 

 necessary to the certain death of the 

 trichinae. , ^—j 



Leisering's experiments with tri-M| 

 chinous pork, made up into sausage-^^ 

 meat and cooked twenty minutes, 

 gave positive results when fed to one 

 rabbit, and negative by another. He 

 sums up his experiments as follows: — 



1. Trichinae are killed by long- 

 continued salting of infected meat, 

 and also by subjecting the same for 

 twenty-four hours to the action of 

 smoke in a heated chamber. 



2. They are not killed by means of 

 cold smoking for a period of three 

 days, and it also appears that twenty 

 minutes cooking freshly prepared 

 sausage-meat is sufficient to kill them 

 in all cases. 



The various kinds of cooking, how- 

 ever, are quite different in their ef- 

 fects on trichinous pork. Frying and 

 broiling are most efficient, roasting 

 coming next. Boiling coagulates the 

 albumen on the outer surface, and 

 allows the heat to penetrate less read- 

 ily ; it should be kept up therefore 

 for at least two hours for large pieces 

 of meat. Whether boiled, broiled, or 

 fried, pork should always be thor- 

 oughly cooked. 



