164 
M. MEGNIN. 
is specially when it is a question of tracing the origin of trichinosis 
of the pig that trichina have been found a little everywhere, not 
onlj 7 in the small animals, which might be eaten by the domestic 
pachydermata, but also in vegetables. Thus Chacht has observed 
that in the radiculae of beets are found small capsules contain¬ 
ing animals resembling trichina. Virchow has proved that they 
were not true trichina. Kuhn, and specially Hein, proved this 
last demonstration. 
Langenbeck has discovered in the intestines of the earthworm 
as many as 600 small helminths, which he considered as true 
trichina. Haubner was of the same opinion, and, besides, has 
considered the mores, which contain this same encysted worms, 
rats, mice, tadpoles, as being very frequently infested with 
trichina. Kuhn has demonstrated that so far as it concerns the 
encysted nematods of the mole and that of the earthworm, they 
are zoologically perfectly distinct from trichina spiralis. I have 
myself made similar observations, and present to the Society cysts 
of the mole containing small worms ten times larger than the 
trichina, and which are the larvae of the Spiroptera strumosa, 
whose adults are found in large numbers in the stomach of the 
8ime animal in March, April and May. 
To the above small mammifera, Cobbold adds the hedgehog as 
being frequently infested with trichina; and, finally, two physi¬ 
cians, Doctor Merlan de Chaille and Professor Tigri, have seen 
trichina in the large cysts of the lungs of sheep; though Mr. 
Delpech has proved that they were the embryos of the strongylus 
filaria, mistaken for trichina. 
The opinion of Cobbold relating to trichina in the hedgehog, 
as well as that of several authors upon the frequent presence of 
the same parasite in rats, mice and several reptiles, has not yet 
been doubted ; evident proofs, on the contrary, have been given 
of the presence of trichina amongst rats of the countries where 
trichinosis is endemic in swine and in man ; but I have strong 
reason to doubt that rats are the carriers of the parasite in the 
countries where trichinosis does not exist. I have already dis¬ 
sected a certain number of sewer rats, and have not met with 
trichina in their muscles. I know of other similar researches 
with similar unsuccessful results. 
