16 TRICHINA SPIRALIS. 
As at present conducted, the small, private slaughter houses which 
abound in this country could not be more effectively arranged and 
managed if the propagation of trichinz were their chief object. The 
_ offal is used for feeding pigs and for top-dressing land, and the om- 
nipresent rat is always on hand to contribute his share to the general 
evil—liberal arrangements being made for his maintainence, and for 
furnishing him with a proper supply of parasites. All this must be 
reformed, and the commission of the following acts should be 
declared to be a penal offence, punishable by fine, and, on a second 
offence, by imprisonment: 
1. Feeding pigs on raw offal of any kind. All flesh and animal 
- matter fed to pigs must be chopped into pieces not larger than a 
cubic inch, and thoroughly cooked. This would not only destroy 
the parasites, but so improve the food that the extra expense would 
be more than made up. 
2. Manuring with slaughter-house manure or offal, grass lands or 
land on which is grown vegetables that are to be eaten in a raw 
state by man or beast. 
This, of course, still leaves the rat as a free rover to pick up 
trichina where he can, and in turn yield them to the pig. To 
destroy all the rats, or even to keep them away from our slaughter 
houses and pig pens, would manifestly be impossible. The only 
way to prevent them from being propagators of trichina is to remove 
all uncooked offal from their reach. All offal should therefore be 
either at once thoroughly cooked or destroyed, and if this is not 
done immediately, it should be securely kept in places lined with 
sheet iron. 
DETECTION OF TRICHIN A. 
The following directions have not been written for the use of 
experts or professional microscopists. We therefore describe the 
simplest methods capable of securing trustworthy results. 
The microscope affords the only reliable means of detecting 
trichine, and fortunately its employment is by no means difficult. 
Any good microscope will answer, care being taken to employ low 
powers. When high magnifying powers are used, it requires great 
skill to find and show these parasites. With the ordinary com- 
pound microscope, the one inch or two-inch objective gives power 
enough; where a simple microscope is used, one magnifying not 
less than 25 diameters should be selected. 
The first thing that the beginner should do 1s to familiarize him- 
