LEPTOMITUS OCULI. 135 



the fall. In the fluid which came away there was foujzd under 

 the microscope, with a power of 280 diameters, a branched 

 vegetable body, divided into four parts, which consisted of con- 

 fervoid cylinders and rows of spores. After the operation the 

 patient got quite well. 



It was a pity that the spores were thrown away without any 

 attempt to make them germinate, so as to ascertain the nature 

 of this parasite. 



Literature. Helmbrecht, c Fall einer confervenartigen After- 

 production in der Augenkammer des linken Auges, welche nach der 

 Paracentese gliicldich beseitigt wurde, Casper's ' Wochenschrift der 

 Gesammte Heilkunde/ 1842, No. 37, pp. 593 600, and Neuber 

 in the same, No. 53; Robin, I.e., pp.369 371. 



Hannover, in his recent work on the eye (1852), has related a 

 very similar case. A man who had a long time been troubled 

 with figures as of a string of pearls before his eye, had the 

 operation of paracentesis performed on his eye. In the fluid 

 which escaped there was found a branched mass of small cylin- 

 ders, which were partly filled with globules, and partly covered 

 externally with minute processes, which were without cylindrical 

 walls, and moniliform in shape. The fungus, which occupied the 

 entire of the interior of the eye, was colourless, or of a slight 

 gray colour, and exhibited two principal forms, one consisting of 

 fine fibres, the other of coarse. The contour of the fine fibres 

 was linear and simple, their contents clear and uniform. The 

 broader fibres were crisped, but of a simpler contour, and with 

 granular contents. Other fibres were moniliform, with an irre- 

 gular contour, and clear uniform or granular contents, and were 

 longer and more numerous than the fine fibres. The coarse 

 fibres were sometimes linear and simple, with clear and glittering 

 homogeneous contents, with small and short branches ; sometimes 

 they had an undulating contour, as though they were composed 

 of these compressed globules ; glittering fibres reflected the light 

 like drops of oil. Lastly, there were present many free globules 

 (sporidia), from two to three times as large as blood-globules. 

 These bodies refracted the light very strongly, resembled the 

 cells of the ferment-fungus of beer, and had uniform contents 

 without a nucleus. Some of the cells were isolated, whilst others 

 were heaped together. The coarse and fine fibres were found 

 towards the periphery of the eye, whilst the pearl-necklace fibres 

 were in the inside. The innermost masses consisted almost en- 



