On The Killing of Mice

I've been killing mice. Those that haven't died of their own volition of course.

Just today, I've murdered 18 mice. A few weeks back, I killed another 23 mice and I'll be doing lots more further down the road. Well, okay, It wasn't I that killed them. My supervisor gassed them, then another person perfused the worms out of them. All I did was count the number of worms present in their system. And anyway, they died for a good cause. To rid the world of schistosomiasis. Okay, well, not the world. Parts of Africa and the Carribean and the Middle East I guess. Still a just cause.

It's interesting how the worms develop in the system. Nice pink healthy livers and lungs become grotesque, deformed nodulous brownish-grey things because the worms lay eggs in them. The spleens become engorged, swelling to about three times its size. The lungs too are affected, becoming hard, scarred things as the juvenile schistosomes pass through on their way to the liver.











Left: Healthy liver.


Right: Schistosome infested liver.














Until next time.