238 Miscellaneous. 



ticum form of Athyrium, and some much-dwarfed P. Phegopteris : 

 the Athyrium had all the characters of A. rhceticum most thoroughly 

 developed, and yet I cannot but think that the same plants were the 

 normal state of A. Filix-fcemina two years back ; the pinnules of 

 P. Phegopteris, even, had a strong inclination to curl. These obser- 

 vations induce me to believe that A. rhceticum and A. Filix-fcemina 

 are identical, the differences between them depending only on the 

 external conditions under which the plants grow, — the influence of 

 the sun inducing the erect rigid habit in the fronds and pinnae, and 

 the curling in the pinnules of A. rhceticum ; and shade and moisture 

 causing the lax, drooping, dilate frond and flat pinnules observable 

 in A. Filix-fcemina. 



I trouble you with these remarks in the hope that, should you 

 insert them in the ' Annals,' some of your readers may be able to 

 confirm my observations. 



I am, Sir, vours very obediently, 



S. O. Gray. 



On the occurrence of Larvce of Sarcophaga in the Human Eye and 

 Nose. By Dr. E. Grube. 



Several cases of the occurrence of the larvae of insects in the 

 human eye have been noticed, but the species or even the genus to 

 which they belonged has never yet been ascertained. Thus a com- 

 munication of Cabrira's, in Von Siebold's Report upon the progress of 

 Helminthology in 1848, mentions that a man who had slept in the 

 open air was attacked by pain in the left eye on the following day. 

 A small red spot was observed on the sclerotic coat, and on rubbing 

 with the upper eyelid, small white worms appeared upon the cornea 

 and the rest of the eyeball; about forty of them were removed. They 

 were of the thickness of a hair, half a line long, and had a small black 

 head. Ormond also observed two cases of inflammation of the eye 

 in which several small larvae of Dipterous insets made their ap- 

 pearance. 



I have to communicate an analogous circumstance observed by 

 Dr. Schnee of Gorigoutzk, in which the specific determination of the 

 insect was possible. Two boys, one four, the other twelve years old, 

 who had slept in the open field during some hot weather, felt, on 

 awaking, a smarting pain in the inner angle of the eye, which gradu- 

 ally increased with violent inflammation, until at last the affected eye 

 lost all power of sight. On examination, Dr. Schnee found in the 

 angle of the eye a mass of maggots, which had destroyed the con- 

 junctiva and the cellular tissue, and penetrated so deeply into the 

 orbit that the hinder end was completely imbedded between the orbit 

 and the eye-ball, although the length of the body is stated at 9 lines. 

 After all the larvae had been removed (there were about twelve or 

 fifteen of them), the internal muscles of the eye were seen as com- 

 pletely freed of cellular tissue as if they had been prepared. 



In drawing the larvae out with forceps, most of them were so in- 

 jured that they did not assume the pupa state ; some acquired this 



