574 I'ROF. OWEN ON TRICHINA SPIRALIS. [Juue 20, 



in the University of Heidelberg at that date, and runs as follows : — 

 " Prof. Tiedemann has found in the body of a man who was ex- 

 cessively addicted to drinking brandy, and who died from dropsy 

 after several violent attacks of gout, white, stony concrements in 

 most of the muscles, especially at the extremities. They were im- 

 bedded in the cellular tissue between the muscular fasciculi, fre- 

 quently also attached to the membranes of the arteries. They were 

 from 2 to 4 lines long and roundish in shape. Subjected to cliemical 

 analysis by Professor Gmelin, they were found to consist of : — 



" Phosphate of Lime 73 



Carbonate of Lime 7 



Animal matter, like albumen or fibrine, 20 



100. 



The pathognomic inference was that these calcareous particles 

 indicated a diffused form of arthritic deposit. 



The acceptable fact is the analysis of the salts, which are attracted 

 by the adventitious cysts after their lengthened retention in the 

 muscular tissue, giving rise to the physical condition noticed in the 

 dissection of the subject in St. Bartholomew's Hospital. 



The foregoing details, chiefly of personal interest, I should not 

 have intruded on the notice of the Zoological Society, save for the 

 great and unexpected importance of the minute parasite which has 

 become notorious since it first came into scientific existence in the 

 pages of our pubhcations. A brief record of this development of 

 Trichina, the last that is likely to come from my pen on the subject, 

 may, perhaps, be condoned. 



I would premise, however, that, soon after the discovery of the 

 wormlet, my friend Dr. Arthur Farre, F.R.S., added interesting 

 facts to its anatomy from microscopic observations of the Trichina 

 in its larval and encysted condition '. The German comparative 

 anatomists Luschka^ and Leuckart^ have made known and 

 admirably illustrated the anatomy of the species in its mature and 

 procreative state. 



Where and how is Trichina spiralis to be met with mature ? 

 Certainly not in the muscular tissue of mankind : all the examples 

 there found have the generative organs undeveloped, as represented 

 in plate xli. of the Trans. Zool. Soc, loc. cit. 



Mr. Bowman, F.R.S., was, I believe, the first to notice the 

 presence of vermicules, which he referred to Trichina, in the sarco- 

 lemma of the muscles of an eel ■*. Trichince have been subsequently 

 detected in the voluntary muscles of the hedgehog, badger, cat, dog, 

 but most frequently and abundantly in those of the hog. In 1852 



^ London Medical Gazette, December 1835. 

 ^ Siebold and Kolliker's Zeitschrift, vol. iii. 1851. 

 ' Ibid. vol. iv. 1852. 



* Art. Muscle in the ' C3'clopsedia of Anatomy,' and Transactions of the 

 Royal Society for the year 1840. 



