212 DR. T, S. COBBOLD OK TEICHIIirA SPIRALIS. 



portunity of infesting themselves, whilst the reverse is the case 

 with swine, carnivorous mammals, and ourselves. Because many- 

 quadrupeds may become trichinous, it does not follow that all are 

 liable to be infested. In the case of other parasites (the common 

 fluke, for example) we find them limited to a larger or smaller 

 number of hosts ; whilst, on the other hand, in not a few cases, 

 the territory occupied is that of the body of a single species. On 

 this subject I must not now dwell ; but I may instance as examples 

 of very limited distribution the two most common cestodes liable 

 to infest the human body. Nematodes, again, display analogous 

 peculiarities of distribution, Oxyuris vermicularis being, so far 

 as is at present known, only liable to infest man. Looking at the 

 subject in relation to the public health, I have no hesitation in 

 saying that a great deal of unnecessary fear has been created in 

 this country. No doubt the Imperial authority in Russia has 

 had good grounds for recently issuing an order prohibiting the 

 importation of pork into that country, since severe endemics of 

 Trichiniasis have occurred in neighboui-ing Grerman states. In 

 this country, however, ordinary precautions will suffice. English 

 swine are almost entirely, if not absolutely, free from this so-called 

 disease ; and not a single case of Trichiniasis in the living human 

 subject has been diagnosed in the United Kingdom. Some twenty 

 or thirty cases have been discovered j^ost mortem ; and it is highly 

 probable that most, if not all, of these individuals had contracted 

 the disease, during life, by eating German pork sausages or other 

 preparations of foreign meat. If further discussion of this aspect 

 of the question were in accordance with the more special aims of 

 the Linnean Society, I would willingly enlarge upon this depart- 

 ment of the subject. The mere statement, therefore, of the gene- - 

 ral practical conclusion at which I have arrived will at least be 

 considered sufficient for the present, and, at the same time, not 

 altogether unsatisfactory. 



