70 
SPOLIA ZEYLANICA. 
accordance with the experience of the staff at the slaughter¬ 
house. 
The Municipal Veterinary Surgeon states that “the parasite is 
more frequently met with in slaughtered buffaloes in the 
months following the dry season in the districts from which 
they are brought.” This statement, however, requires statistical 
confirmation or rebuttal. 
VIII.— Periodicity. 
We have no exact information respecting the possibility of 
periodical outbreaks of Sarcosporidiosis. The prevailing impres¬ 
sion among butchers is that the infestation is perennial. 
The Superintendent of the Slaughter House reports that the 
youngest animal affected in his experience was aged three years 
and the oldest sixteen years. In a solitary instance of a cow in 
calf he found that the mother was visibly affected but not the calf. 
He states further that in his experience the sarcocysts found about 
the neck tend to be larger than those found elsewhere. 
No observations have been made on sucking calves in this 
connection. 
The fact which we have ascertained that the parasite is present 
in all stages of growth from the microscopic condition within a 
muscular fibre to its coarse obtrusion in the substance.of the 
meat, shows that the invasion of the fibres takes place more 
or less continuously. 
Unfortunately we have not succeeded in obtaining any certain 
clue as to the ultimate fate of the mature cysts. 
IX.— Dissemination of the Parasite. 
In the case of Sarcocystis muris which attacks mice, it has been 
shown by Professor Theobald Smith of Harvard University that 
healthy mice fed upon the flesh of infected mice contracted the 
disease, and that the spores entered the host by way of the alimen¬ 
tary tract 44 in a manner analogous to the transmission of 
Trichinae.” Their passage from the gullet or gut into the mus¬ 
cular system was not traced. Professor Smith points out that 
44 the life-histories of all Sarcosporidia are not necessarily explained 
by the results obtained with Sarcocystis muris. It would be 
difficult, for instance, to account for the Sarcosporidia of cattle 
in the way those of mice can now be accounted for, since cattle 
are not carnivorous. Their muscle parasite is either an aberrant 
form from some invertebrate taken in with their food, or else 
there is an intestinal stage as well which readily permits a 
discharge of spores outwards.” 
