T^NIA SOLIUM. 229 



onlj a small part of the meal which is unaffected by cooking. The 

 temperature of boiling water is quite sufficient bo destroy the vita- 

 hty of the measles. In ordinary salted pork, the Cysticerci are 

 destroyed by the salt acting chemically and mechanically upon their 

 tissues and juices. In most cases the like effect is produced on 

 pork which is smoked in the preparation of hams. Of course, in 

 all these instances there may be imperfection in the choice and pre- 

 paration of these foods, without any dishonesty on the part of the 

 butcher, salesman, or cook. A few Cysticerci may also exist with- 

 out their being seen, and the flesh of the animal may even appear 

 particularly inviting. In thoroughly diseased swine, however, the 

 case is very different ; and here there can be no excuse for the sale 

 of such diseased meat, though one admits there ought to be some 

 method of compensation to the butcher. In badly measled swine 

 the flesh on section presents a disgusting, spawn-like appearance, 

 due to the confluency of the numerous httle bladder-like vesicles or 

 Cysticerci. Here, it is obvious, there is danger even in the cutting 

 up of the flesh. The knife employed by the butcher — it is some- 

 times even incautiously placed in his own mouth — is indiscrimi- 

 nately used to cut up any other meats at hand, and not unfrequently 

 the vesicles are transferred from meat to meat, and from meat to 

 mouth. This is one reason why so many butchers suffer from tape- 

 worm. Cooks also, in hke manner, will cut bread, cheese, and 

 other foods with the same knives which they have just previously 

 been employing to slice or chop up pork which may have contained 

 a few, or even many Cysticerci, and thus, again, the mode of infec- 

 tion is accounted for. Many other similar circumstances by which 

 the larvge may be transferred to the human stomach wdll also natu- 

 rally suggest themselves ; but in reference to this part of the sub- 

 ject, I will here only further remark that it is a delusion to suppose 

 that other meats, such as veal and beef, are free from parasite 

 larvae. These foods, as will be presently shown, also harbour Cys- 

 ticerci, which give rise to the development of tapeworms scarcely 

 less injurious than the Tcenia solium. 



