380 SYNOPSIS OF CONTINENTAL VETERINARY JOURNALS. 
was found insipid and devoid of juice. After this de¬ 
scription M. Perroncito asks if a butcher to whom such 
an animal is handed over can have any claim for com¬ 
pensation on the seller. Then he reminds us that in 
human medicine Cavagnis in such cases advises adminis¬ 
tration of iodide of potassium, long continued, and seconded 
by faradisation and good feeding. Remuell and Benedikt 
obtained good results from galvanisation alone. We regret 
that this observation, interesting as it is, was not rendered 
more so by more extended observation, which would surely 
have thrown some light on the hitherto little studied 
organic modifications which result from fattening animals 
for slaughter. It would have been particularly interesting 
to have made a qualitative and quantitative examination of 
the blood, and especially an analysis of the muscles. It is 
almost impossible to conclude, by microscopical examina¬ 
tion, whether or not a muscular fibre has undergone change 
of diameter, since the least difference of tension may cause 
error. Chemical analysis would have solved the difficulty 
by showing either increase or diminution of myosin and 
syntonin— Annali della Beale Accademia d'Acjricoltura di 
Torino . 
On the Parasites termed Trichina of Birds, by MM. 
Hi volta and Delprato. —Since the Trichina spiralis (Ow.) 
and the disease which it occasions have been well known, the 
attention of physicians and naturalists has been directed 
to the way in which it gains entry into the system, and it 
has been asked whether the flesh of animals other than the pig 
can by consumption be a means of transmission. Attention 
has been especially directed to barn-door fowls, and recourse 
has been had to microscopical observation and experimental 
research. Unfortunately the work hitherto done in this 
matter, far from conveying information, has been the source 
of confused discussions and prejudiced mutual affirmations 
and negations. Has not the Trichina of Owen been con¬ 
founded with analogous but not identical nematodes since 
1838? Yon Siebold, in his memoire on the sexless parasites 
of birds and mammals, said that there must be more than 
one species of Trichina, and Pagenstecher also came to this 
conclusion after an examination of birds of the genus Anas. 
But Herbst, more especially, established different species 
and gave the following as a result of his researches :—(1) A 
Trichina spiralis (Owen) in the cat. (2) A species peculiar to 
birds. (3) A species transmissible from the mole to the pigeon. 
(4) A species transmissible from dog to dog and from the do°- 
to the badger, and vice versa , Wedl demonstrated the ana- 
