CYSTICERCUS IN THE EYE. 1*25 



symptoms which it produces also vary. It is quite harmless in 

 the subcutaneous cellular tissue, where it was observed by Uhde 

 (who, in describing his results, has made some frightful reflections 

 upon the generaiio aquivora), by A. von Graefe, in a patient also 

 suffering from Cysticercus in the eye, by Romberg, and by Stich, 

 who has long treated the patients in question in his hospital. In 

 the muscles, perhaps with the sole exception of the muscles of the 

 heart, it also causes little inconvenience or injury. When situated 

 in the muscles of the heart, and especially in the papillary mus- 

 cles, it may lead to softening of the muscles, and during the 

 period of its retrogression, shrivelling, or calcification, to abbrevia- 

 tion of the papillar muscles, to defects in the valves, and to the 

 formation of diverticula and aneurisms, with their consequences. 

 Whether a rupture of the cyst, occurring during the period of 

 retrogression, when this has proceeded to the greasy, fatty degene- 

 ration by setting free the greasy masses into the blood, may 

 give rise to the formation of thrombus in the vessels, and to 

 the consequences of this, so beautifully indicated by Virchow, 

 we have no observations to show. There is no diagnosis for it in 

 the deeper muscles of the living man, not even when seated in 

 the muscles of the heart. 



Its influence when situated in the eye is of more importance. 

 Since Sommering discovered this parasite in the human eye, it 

 has been found by Mackenzie, Baum, Esthlin, Horing, Sichel, 

 A. von Graefe, and others. Since the discovery of the ocular 

 speculum by Helmholtz, A. von Graefe has done the most 

 service to this branch of ophthalmology; and what follows is the 

 description given by him, partly in the first volume of his 

 'Archiv' (p. 453, &c.), and partly in friendly communications 

 to me by letter. 



When, as in the cases of Baum, Esthlin, Horing, and Sichel, 

 the parasite is between the conjunctiva and the sclerotica, it is riot 

 very dangerous, sometimes exciting no injurious action at all upon 

 the power of sight, and may easily be removed by operation. But 

 even in this position it may become dangerous to the eye, inas- 

 much as it causes the absorption of the subjacent structures of the 

 bulb, and, consequently, injures the whole structure of the eye 

 and indirectly the visual power. The phenomena are as follows, 

 according to the different positions inhabited by the worm 



a. When it is situated in the anterior chamber of the eye, in 

 which it was first seen in the living subject by Sommering and 



