78 EELWOEMS. 



tracts this dangerous complaint, the worms from the cysts breed- 

 ing in his intestines and migrating to his muscles. The danger 

 is when the young worms pass through the intestinal walls into 

 the muscle : they, by so doing, produce violent inflammation, 

 which may be fatal, and intense pains result, similar to those 

 occasioned by rheumatism. 



The way Trichinosis is said to be partly spread is by the 

 agency of rats. Eats are known to suffer severely from T. 

 Kjjiralis. Pigs greedily devour any dead rats they can get 

 hold of, and thus take the disease. How many rats have we 

 seen given to the pigs in farmyards and elsewhere ! It is a 

 common practice, and one by which the life-cycle is partly 

 kept going. 



Migrations may take place in the rat itself : rats, by eating 

 other dead ones, also keep the worms on the increase, tending 

 of course to the chances of pigs taking the disease, and thus 

 conveying the germs to man. The number of ova produced 

 by one worm is said to be between 10,000 and 15,000. 



Eelworms or Anguillulid.e. 



Eelworms are free-living Nematodes of small size. Some live 

 in or on plants as parasites, and cause various diseases and 

 abnormal growths in plant tissues. Others live in decaying 

 matter as saprophytes ; many may often be found in decaying 

 roots. Fermentations are also produced by some Anguillulida?', 

 such as by the Vinegar- and Paste-worms. By far the greater 

 number live free in damp earth and in water. 



Eelworms are very minute worms, with very thin skins, and 

 lay only a few comparatively largo eggs, which undergo rapid 

 development. Parasitic and saprophytic forms can be told by 

 the presence of a curious mouth-spine. This structure, found 

 in the mouth cavity, is very sharp and pointed in front, and 

 can be worked backwards and forwards, so as to penetrate the 

 cell- walls of plants. In all cases an eelworni devoid of a spine 



