i6 
Journal of Agricultural Research 
Vol. I, No. r 
regulations governing the disposal of affected hog and sheep carcasses. 
The American meat-inspection regulations, which are similar to, though 
necessarily somewhat more stringent than, the German regulations 
because of the lack of a Preibank system in this country, require the con¬ 
demnation of carcasses heavily infested with C. cellulosae and permit 
slightly infested carcasses to be rendered into edible fat. As a con¬ 
demned carcass is entirely destroyed for food purposes and as the value 
of a sheep carcass rendered into edible tallow is scarcely greater than 
that of one which has been condemned and made into fertilizer or other 
inedible products, a carcass infested with C. cellulosae in any degree 
whatsoever would be practically excluded from use as food under Ameri¬ 
can regulations. Accordingly, if the mutton cysticercus were actually 
C. cellulosae , the 20,000 sheep carcasses in which muscle cysticerci were 
found last year would have been eliminated from the meat supply of the 
United States. Relatively this loss would not have been very great, and 
in actual money value it would not have exceeded $100,000. In thefuture, 
however, much greater losses would occur, because the more efficient 
methods of inspection which would be developed by experience would 
naturally lead to the detection of more nearly all the cases of sheep 
measles than the earlier, less efficient methods. The number of sheep 
affected with measles is probably considerably in excess of 1 per cent of 
the entire number slaughtered, and accordingly the loss on this account 
would be very large if anywhere near all the cases were found on inspec¬ 
tion and if they were disposed of under the assumption that the parasite 
involved is C. cellulosae . 
Shortly following the discovery of the first cases found last year, the 
writer undertook an investigation of the question of sheep measles, with 
the result that it was quickly proved that the parasite involved is cer¬ 
tainly not Cysticercus cellulosae , though closely resembling it in some re¬ 
spects, and in due course of time it was definitely established that the 
mutton cysticercus is the larval stage of a dog tapeworm. 
The question of sheep measles is therefore much less serious than it 
would be if the parasite were one transmissible to man, particularly if it 
were the rather dangerous Cysticercus cellulosae . So far as meat inspec¬ 
tion is concerned, however, sheep measles, though less important as a 
public-health question, are almost as important as though the parasite 
involved were transmissible to human beings, because meat containing 
parasites of sufficient size to be noticeable is more or less objectionable 
as food for esthetic reasons if on no other account. 
HISTORICAL SUMMARY 
Considering critically the various statements which have appeared 
relative to muscle cysticerci in sheep prior to the recent investigations 
by the present writer, it may be noted in the first place that excepting 
one of Morot’s (1899c) 1 cases (No. 3), which was quite evidently one of 
1 Bibliographic references in parentheses refer to the "Bibliography,'’ pp. 54-57. 
