. Elements of pathological anatomy. Anatomy. SECT. I.] PARASITES. 261 Fig. 12. Fig. In persons dying of protracted diseases, I have repeatedly ob- served a dark bluish color in particular muscles, especially those of the abdomen, accompanied with remarkable flaccid- ity and facility of laceration. These changes are more com- mon in negroes ; and, from having often noticed them within a few hours after death, I am disposed to think that they are not altogether cadaveric. Dropsical and consumptive subjects, more frequently than any other, present these appearances. The voluntary muscles are
. Elements of pathological anatomy. Anatomy. SECT. I.] PARASITES. 261 Fig. 12. Fig. In persons dying of protracted diseases, I have repeatedly ob- served a dark bluish color in particular muscles, especially those of the abdomen, accompanied with remarkable flaccid- ity and facility of laceration. These changes are more com- mon in negroes ; and, from having often noticed them within a few hours after death, I am disposed to think that they are not altogether cadaveric. Dropsical and consumptive subjects, more frequently than any other, present these appearances. The voluntary muscles are occasionally infested by para- sitic animals, the principal of which are the cysticercic hyda- tid, and the spiral trichina. The former are seldom seen in the human subject, but are very common in the swine, sheep, and other quadrupeds, in which, particularly in the first, they often exist in immense numbers, rendering the flesh com- pletely unfit for use. The spiral trichina, (Figs. 12, 13, 14,) which has been recently discovered by Mr. Richard Owen, a distinguished English natural- ist, is a very delicate, minute, coiled-up entozoon, about the twenty-fourth of a line in length, and the seven hundredth part of an inch in diameter. It is of a cylindrical shape, and termi- nates obtusely at both extremi- ties, which are of unequal size, the larger being furnished with a transverse linear orifice, which evidently answers the purpose of a mouth. It is a singular fact that this worm is always en- closed by a distinct cyst, which is the reason, probably, why it so long escaped the observation of anatomists ; since it appears, from the researches of Owen, Knox, Hodgkin, and others, that its occurrence is rather frequent than otherwise. This cyst, which is supposed by some to be merely con- densed cellular tissue, is formed out of the plastic lymph of the blood, and is scarcely one fortieth by one hundredth of an inch in diameter. It is of a whitish appearance, and. Fig. 14.*. Please
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Keywords: ., bookauthorgr, bookcentury1800, bookdecade1840, booksubjectanatomy
