DISEASED PORK, AND MICROSCOPIC WORMS IN MAN. 147 
pleural cavities. None could be traced in the blood of the 
mesenteric vessels. Leuckart also traced the parasites in the 
red spots on the peritoneum, which evidently indicate the 
parts where the parasites were burrowing. 
In the pig, thousands of trichinae may exist without affecting 
the animal’s health ; though commonly, at the period of migra- 
tion from the alimentary canal to the muscular system, there is 
diarrhoea, lassitude, and a general feverish state. These 
symptoms may be so severe as to kill, or may pass off ; and 
either the animal lives on with trichinae in its flesh, which 
afterwards die and cretify, or within a fortnight or a month 
there is evidence of pain, stiffness in movements, languor, 
debility, and death. 
What we see in the lower animals has been witnessed in 
man, and cases are accumulating so as to teach physicians 
how to diagnose the trichinae in the living subject. 
The early reports of such cases in this country revealed such 
complications, that the trichinae have been looked upon as 
harmless occupants of the muscles of diseased or healthy 
human beings. The cases reported by Professor Owen belong 
to this class ; and whether the death of the sick people whose 
histories are given was hastened or not by the trichinous disease, 
we are left to conjecture. I am inclined to think that the 
muscular parasite is, to say the least, a dangerous complication, 
as in the following instance. Dr. Bellingham reports that 
Bernard Macauley (set. 67), a labourer, was admitted into 
St. VincenPs Hospital, December 20, 1851. He had for 
several years suffered from cough and oppression of his 
breathing. A fortnight ago, he states that he was attacked 
with severe pain in the left side after exposure to cold. On 
examination, signs of bronchitis and emphysema of the lungs 
were evident ; in addition, there was dulness, which indicated 
much fluid. The breathing was much oppressed, and the 
patient much debilitated. He gradually became worse, and 
died on the fifth day after his admission. On examination, 
the lungs were emphysematous, the bronchial tubes loaded with 
mucus, the left pleura was coated by lymph, and about a pint 
and a half of very fetid pus was contained in its cavity. 
The most remarkable point, however, connected with the 
case, was the presence of an immense number of the cysts of 
the Trichina spiralis in the voluntary muscles, particularly in 
the pectoralis major and minor upon each side, in the sterno- 
mastoid, sterno-thyroid, and omo-hyoid muscles upon both 
sides. When these muscles were exposed, they had the 
appearance of being dotted over with innumerable minute 
white specks of an oval or elliptic form, the long diameter 
corresponding with that of the muscular fibres ; these, on exa- 
mination, proved to be cysts of the Trichina spiralis. 
