134 VEGETABLE PARASITES. 



colourless. They were of various lengths, and bent and undu- 

 lated. They were rendered transparent by acetic acid, and were 

 seen to be composed of elongated cells, laid end to end, as in 

 many fresh-water Confeme. In some of the filaments the cel- 

 lular structure disappeared, so that they appeared like simple 

 fibres. 



The primary filaments were from two to six times larger than 

 the secondary. The broadest were shortest, and terminated 

 at one end bluntly, and at the other with a bundle of six or 

 seven long secondary filaments. The blunt ends of the primary 

 filaments seemed to be adapted to the formation of partition walls 

 and spores. Besides these, Wilkinson observed ovoid or spherical 

 corpuscles, which frequently presented, when treated with acetic 

 acid, a nucleus. On account of the above-noticed bundles of 

 small fibres, Wilkinson called this parasite Lorum (wool) uteri. 

 This parasite is not injurious to its host. The drawing given by 

 Wilkinson resembles the Sphceria Robertsii, of which Robin has 

 given a figure in his tab. xiii, fig. 6. 



Literature. - Wilkinson, Some Remarks upon the Develop- 

 ment of Epiphytes, with the description of a new vegetable 

 formation found in connection with the human Uterus, ' Lancet/ 

 1849, p. 448, figs. 1 and 2 B (fig. 2 A' and A are out of the 

 question, as they appear to be Cryptococcus cerevisice) ; Robin, 

 1. c. pp. 367 369. 



IX. Leptomitus (?) Oculi. 



Helmbrecht relates the case of a clergyman, forty-two years of 

 age, who came under his care for an inflammation of both eyes, 

 and which was attended with a sudden sanguineous enlargement 

 in the left eye. Warm fomentations and a foot-bath removed 

 the phenomenon, but epiphora and a flashing in the eye re- 

 mained. By resting the eye this also disappeared, when he 

 suddenly, without any obvious cause, saw figures of a constant 

 form with the left eye, and muscce volitantes in the right. The 

 last got well, but there remained in the field of vision of the left 

 eye a constant form, which moved itself in a definite manner in 

 various directions. After this the patient had a fall from a 

 carriage, when the movements of the figure became more free. 

 Helmbrecht now made a puncture in the lower part of the cornea, 

 to allow of the passage of the body supposed to be loosened by 



