necessarily serious, since after the development of the young worms (and
it is at this period when the suffering of the human patient is at its
height), the worms begin to form capsules again, as in the pig, and when
inclosed, are again inocuous. Professor Sedgwick says that persons in
robust health may be able to survive the attack of half a million or
more of these flesh worms and recover, but there is a limit to human
endurance, and the numbers often contained in the muscles of man from
this source are almost incredible. In some severe cases, the numbers
contained in human bodies have been estimated by reliable authorities to
be as high as forty to sixty millions. Not long ago, the writer was
impressed with the severity of this disease by having brought to his
attention an epidemic in a herd of swine caused, presumably, by feeding
waste which contained rinds of Western pork, infected with trichinae and
many examples may be found of regular epidemics caused by persons eating
raw ham infected with this disease. Fortunately the means of prevention
is very simple and implies merely the thorough cooking of the meat. If
persons will avoid eating raw or underdone swine flesh in any of its
varieties, no danger need be apprehended.

In general, it should be remembered that any animals dying of diseases
are not fit for food, and this applies to all animals, from the largest
to the smallest. Animals dying by accident, of course, are exceptions,
but if diseased animals, animals dying a natural death, and animals out
of condition are eliminated, the quality of food supplied from any
individual farm may be approved so far as the animal itself is
concerned.

_The slaughter-house._

There is, however, the further question of the sanitary condition of the
slaughter-house and the care of the meat after being dressed. It may be
that one gets accustomed to the sight of the filthy barns or out-houses
so often used for slaughtering. Places infected with flies and other
insects, overrun with rats, and the effluvia of which is easily
noticeable at a distance of half a mile, are not uncommon and suggest
their own condemnation. While it is not possible to directly associate
any particular disease with such a condition of the slaughter-house, yet
such conditions must result in a rapid development of putrefactive
bacteria, in the deposit by flies of different micro-organisms brought
from the festering heaps of offal and manure in the vicinit