218 



THE AMEEICAN MONTHLY 



[October, 



(probably in an endeavor to keep warm). The smoking or salting of 

 the flesh does not insure their death. 



Discovery. — Authorities conflict in their statements regarding the 

 discovery of trichinae. It is probable that Professor Owen, of England, 

 was the first to examine and describe the worm. The specimen was 

 sent him from the dissecting or post-mortem room of St. Bartholomew 

 Hospital, where the dissecting knives were dulled by the cysts. This 

 was in 1834 or ^^35. It is also asserted that the ancients knew the 

 parasite and some hint that Moses was aware of their existence in the 

 pork of that day. 



Trichinosis, trichiniasis, trichinatous disease, and trichinal disease are 

 various terms used to designate the affliction caused by one animal eat- 

 ing the flesh of another containing trichinae. The disease was first 

 described by Professor Zenker, of Dresden, in i860. As soon as a per- 

 son has eaten of flesh containing the parasites the digestive process sets 

 them free in the stomach, from whence they pass to the small intestine. 

 Here they become sexual within forty-eight hours, the female becoming 

 slightly larger than the male. Within five or six days the females give 

 birth to living young at the rate of one thousand to each female. 





SPECIMEN TAKEN FROM PORK WHICH CAUSED THE DEATH OF A GIRL AND HEK 

 MOTHER. 



By this process a person who has eaten one-half pound of infected 

 pork may become the unwilling host of thirty million small filamen- 

 tous embryo within a few days. The animal causes intestinal disturb- 

 ances which manifest themselves as abdominal pains, vomiting, and 

 diarrhoea. The growing young trichinae soon find their way into tissues 

 and traverse the muscles to their tendonous terminations. The patient 

 usually has an elevation of temperature at this time and it is not con- 

 trolled by quinine. 



Owing to the peculiar fibrous formation of the heart the trichinae 

 never enter its substance and they are seldom found in any of the mus- 

 cular organs. After the trichince have travelled as far as they can in 

 the muscles they curl up and remain quiescent until the flesh is dis- 

 turbed by the death of the host. Pains similar to rheumatism may 



