TRICHINA SPIRALIS. 



339 



cording to Owen) ; and, without attempting a minute description 

 of their organization, it may be stated that not only do they exhibit 

 a well-marked digestive apparatus in their interior, but, also, dis- 

 tinct evidences of the presence of reproductive organs, which are 

 often, indeed, sufl&ciently developed to enable us to determine the 

 sexes. As regards the number of larval Trichina in any one 

 " bearer" at a time, this, of course, must be extremely variable, but 

 there can be no doubt that it may amount to at least twenty mil- 

 hons. In one of the cats which Leuckart successfully experimented 

 on, he estimated a single ounce of its muscle-flesh to harbour no 

 less than three hundred and twenty-five thousand Trichina. If 



'Em. 73. — Sexually mature female Trichina spiralis, from muscle. (Highly magnified.)— Leuckart. 



all the voluntary muscles of the human body were infested to the 

 extent of only fifty thousand Trichinae to the ounce, that would 

 give us a total of upwards of thirty millions of worms in the flesh 

 of a single person.* 



Respecting the sexually-mature or adult Trichina, it is impor- 

 tant to observe, in the first place, that it is Hable to inhabit the 

 intestinal canal of various animals ; of all those, indeed, in which 



* My colleague, Dr. Lieving, informs me that an average-sized man, weighing ten 

 stone, ordinarily carries about four stone weight of muscle. The above calculation is 

 made in accordance with this datum. — T. S. C. 



