Miscellaneous. 387 



varieties, produced by the difference of the medium in which they 

 grow, I undertook a series of experiments in cuUivating my auricular 

 fungi in different media. The lemon and the sweet orange proved 

 to be especially favourable for these experiments. The result of 

 these experiments, which were frequently repeated and modified, 

 was very distinct and constant. Eveiy time that I transplanted 

 A. flavescens or nigricans from their animal soil to a vegetable one 

 (a slice of lemon or orange), they infallibly returned to the same 

 form of vegetable mould, namely A. glaucus (Link). Every dis- 

 tinctive character between A. flavescens and^. nigricans disappeared 

 in consequence of their transmutation into A. glaucus, of which they 

 are consequently only varieties, caused by the difference of the 

 medium (animal or vegetable) in which they grow. When a slice of 



lemon or orange is sown with A. flavescens or A. nigricans 



in 48 hours the surface of the slice is already covered with a 

 layer of sterile filaments of mycelium, which are fine and white and 

 like those of a spider's web. In three days this white layer of 

 mycelium is covered with an innumerable quantity of spores. We 

 may then detect, by means of the microscope, the presence of spe- 

 cimens of an Aspergillus the sporanges and free spores of which are 

 distinctly of a brownish-green colour (^A. glaucus. Link). 



(After some remarks on the treatment of these fungi when 

 growing in the human ear, from which it appears that the best 

 agents for their destruction are hypochlorite of lime and arsenite 

 of potash even in very dilute solutions, the author proceeds as 

 follows : — ) 



The Aspei'gillus when vegetating in the ear of the human subject 

 produces a very characteristic disease, which I have uamed Myco- 

 myringitis or Myringomycosis aspergillina. It presents two forms, 

 according as it is occasioned by A. flavescens or A. nigricaiis. The 

 latter produces more serious morbid phenomena than the former. 

 I should state that hitherto I have never seen A. flavescens and A. 

 nigricans vegetating simultaneously in the same ear, nor could I 

 discover the least trace of a mixture of Penicillium glaucum (Link) 

 with the Aspergillus, although this mixture occurs ordinarily in the 

 moulds which cover vegetable substances. Having learnt that 

 Troeltsch of Wiirzburg had recently found in the auditory meatus of 

 a patient a mould formed by an Aspergillus penicellatus, I went to 

 the spot to examine the microscopic preparations of the parasite, 

 and found that they only presented a mixture of Ascophora 

 elegans and A. mucedo. 



I have had an opportunity of ascertaining as a matter of fact how 

 injurious the moulds growing in rooms are to man. In a case 

 studied by me, I was astonished at the unusual obstinacy with which 

 the vegetations oi A. nigricans were renewed for three mouths in the 

 patient, notwithstanding the employment of the best parasiticides. 

 Being unable to explain this extraordinary circumstance except by 

 continual infection, I went to the hospital where the woman was a 

 superintendent. I found that in three rooms, in which thirty-four 



