70 



butcher's hog should be held in abomination. Scalding water should occasionally be 

 "thrown over the floors of the pig-pen and the dog-kennel. Should a tape- worm be 

 Voided by any creature, it should be burned immediately or buried deep in the earth. 

 Dried beef, ham, &c, should not be eaten raw. All meat should be thoroughly cooked. 

 Especial care in this respect should be taken with sausages. 



Trichina Spiralis 



This parasite was first made known by Prof. Owen, the famous English anatomist 

 in 1835. It was discovered in its encysted condition in human flesh. Prof. Owen found 

 that the gritty calcareous capsules, that had blunted the dissector's scalpel, contained, 

 in every instance, from one to three minute hair-like worms coiled up conically. This 

 circumstance suggested the name of the parasite to him. A German helminthologist, 

 i)r Herbst, by feeding dogs with trichinous meat, and afterwards dissecting them, dis- 

 covered the way in which the trichinae are propagated. 



The capsules containing trichinae, having passed into the stomach, are dissolved by 

 the gastric juices, and the worms are set free. The adult male worm is one-twelfth of an 

 inch long, the adult female is one-eighth of an inch. The latter is ovo-viviparous — she 

 brings forth her young alive. These rapidly spread themselves throughout the voluntary 

 muscles, wherein they at length become encysted, In the case of the human host they 

 must ultimately perish — unless, indeed, the unfortunate man be destined to become a 

 missionary, and to make a meal for inhabitants of New Caledonia, or some other nice 

 people. 



It is from the pig that danger of trichinous infection is to be dreaded ; and the 

 danger is greater perhaps than people are aware of. It has been found that about one 

 in two hundred and fifty of the pigs killed in Montreal have suffered from trichinosis. 

 Such paragraphs as the following, very frequently appear in the newspapers : — 



" Henrietta Straez, of Chicago, ate raw ham at a wedding a month ago, and died on 

 Friday of trichinosis in great agony. Forty thousand parasites were found in a square 

 inch of one of her muscles. A number of other persons who partook of the ham showed 

 evidence of the disease but most of them have been relieved." — Montreal Daily Witness, 

 January 21, 1882. 



" Four hundred persons are prostrated by trichinosis in ten villages of Saxony, and 

 fifty-one are hopelessly ill. Deaths from the disease are occurring daily." — Montreal 

 Daily Star, October 17, 1883. 



The symptoms of trichinosis or trichiuiasis areas follows : — Loss of appetite, nausea, 

 vomiting, diarrhoea, fever and prostration, soreness in the muscles, painful swellings, 

 laboured breathing, etc. The disease in pigs has often been mistaken for " hog-cholera " ; 

 inhuman beings, for typhoid fever. 



The means of prevention are the same as against the echinococcus disease. 



The Liver Fluke (Fasciola hepatica). 



The Flukes, unlike the triehina? and the tape-worms, are not parasitic through all 

 the period of their existence. They spend a portion of the time on land, a portion in 

 the water. The full-grown liver-fluke is about an inch in length, and is pointed some- 

 what abruptly at the head, but tapers gradually at the other extremity. It is provided 

 with two suckers — the oral for imbibing nourishment, at the extremity of the head ; the 

 ventral at the base of the neck, which is nsed merely as a "holdfast." The skin of the 

 creature is furnished with numerous microscopic spines. The liver-fluke is found most 

 frequently in grazing cattle, and especially in the sheep. The disease it causes is known 

 as the " rot " ; and so destructive is it, that, in England, during the season of 1830-31, 

 it was estimated that upwards of 1,000,000 sheep died from it alone. The flukes are 

 sometimes very numerous ; Leuw<enho?ck counted eight hundred and seventy in one liver. 



