EAR-FUNGUS. 271 



" The only instance of a growth of this kind in a like situation, that 

 I am acquainted with, is in Robin's work; he quotes, hfavever, from 

 a paper by Mayer, in Muller's ' Archives.' He speaks of a fungoid vege- 

 tation which was found in some cysts removed from the ear of a child 

 eight years old, who was suffering with a scrofulous discharge from the 

 external meatus, and had been treated both locally and generally with a 

 variety of medicaments. 



" The differences between the description given by Robin and that 

 which I have to offer are such as to lead to the belief that the objects are 

 not similar. 



" 1st. I detected no cysts, but flocculent membranous-looking masses. 



" 2d. He describes the stipe as long, and containing within it small 

 granules (or having a granular interior). Now although the accompany- 

 ing has a rather long stipe, it does not contain spherules or granules. 



" 3d. The pileus is said by Robin to be small and of a greenish colour, 

 whereas that here shown is comparatively large and of a reddish-brown 

 colour. 



" 4th. The position and character of the spores are distinctly different. 

 Robin speaks of them as granules, single or double, spread over the sur- 

 face of the upper swollen extremity of the stipe ; but those here exhibited 

 are closely packed oval spores, completely enveloping the upper extremity 

 of the stipe, forming a compact pileus. 



" Further, there is a difference in the cases furnishing the growth, the 

 contrast between a scrofulous child, eight years of age, and a healthy man 

 in the prime of life, is as great as could be, and tends to show that the 

 scrofulous habit has no special influence in favouring the growth of the 

 parasite." 



