SARCOSPORIDIA 



description of the Sarcosporidia is based, so that there is still a wide field 

 open for research in regard to the structure and development of these parasites 

 and the manner in which the hosts are infected. 



The Sarcosporidia usually appear as elongated, cylindrical, or 

 fusiform bodies, rounded at both extremities and of various lengths 



and breadths (fig. 56) ; they lie inside the striated muscular 

 fibres which they distend more or less. The forms found in 

 the connective tissue are apparently parasites which originally 

 inhabited the muscular fibres, and only on disintegration of the 

 fibres reached the connective tissue, where they grow to large oval 

 or globular bodies (fig. 57). In fresh flesh cut into exceedingly thin 







L. 



FIG. 56. Longitudinal section FIG. 57. Transverse section of 



of a muscle of the domestic pig, the muscle of a pig, with Sarco- 



with Sarcocystis miescheriana cystis miescheriana (Kiihn). 38/1. 

 (Kiihn). 30/1. 



slices they are frequently recognisable, even with the naked eye r 

 on account of their yellowish-white colour ; under the microscope, 

 by a refracted light, they appear to be dark and coarsely granular ; 

 beginners will find some difficulty in distinguishing them from 

 other foreign bodies, such as dead and calcified encapsulated 

 Trichinae, or from cysticerci that have died and become calcified 

 in the early stages, more particularly as the Sarcosporidia also 

 occasionally may become calcified. 



The Sarcosporidia are always enveloped in a membrane, which 

 is probably formed at an early stage ; in a few cases it remains 

 thin and simple, in other cases a so-called " rod-like armature " 

 is exhibited, which has been variously described. From the inner 

 integument, which may be homogeneous or fibrous, thick or thin, 



