NAIL FUNGUS. 227 



s 



bluish to intensely black with older persons. The structure 

 of the capitulum was distinctly discernible only in young persons. 



3. Spores. They were spherical, 0*003 mm. broad, showing 

 in their free state a feeble movement (Brown's molecular motion), 

 and forming radiated rows with the receptaculum for their centre. 

 Each row contained from eight to fifteen spores. Some rows were 

 occasionally found isolated, but only on ripe forms (Micheli). 

 Each receptaculum bore, according to Pacini, 19,000 spores. 



Dr. Bargellini discovered this fungus on Nardi, who had been 

 ill fourteen years. Nardi had resorted to sea-bathing, and he 

 stated that the water had often remained in his ears, causing 

 him at first pain, together with itching ; lastly, however, almost 

 complete deafness. Bargellini found, in the outer auditory duct, 

 small transparent vesicles, like millet-seed, with rather thick 

 walls, and having a serous secretion, which prevented him from 

 looking deeper into the auditory duct. A fortnight afterwards 

 the latter was found to be blocked up with a whitish mem- 

 brane, which could be removed by means of lukewarm water, 

 but only made place for fresh layers. After another fortnight 

 a blackish substance made its appearance, plugging up the audi- 

 tory duct, and adhering to a whitish membrane when the syringe 

 was applied. This happened repeatedly after cleaning the ear, 

 and Pacini, who examined this substance under the microscope, 

 found the above-mentioned rows of spores amidst the fat and epi- 

 thelial cells, partly dyed with blood, and viewed them as algae- 

 spores. Injections of acetate of lead (15 centigrammes to 30 

 grammes of water) easily removed this merely accessory para- 

 site, which perhaps owed its chief prosperity to the oil used 

 for injection having become rancid. Pacini's theory of the 

 origin of this fungus has not been confirmed by more recent 

 researches, as observed by Robin. 



Literature. Pacini, ' Supra una muffa parasita (Mucedo) nel 

 condotto auditivo externo/ Firenze, 1851, p. 7. 



XII. Meissner's and Vir chow's Nail Fungus Aspergilli (?) species. 



Tab. V, fig. 4. 



1. Meissner found at Baum's Clinic a copious plexus of variously 

 entwined filamental fungi on the nails of an octogenarian, which 

 were thick and broad, with thick edges, strongly convex, re- 



