THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 351 



Nay, fungi have been found even within the human 

 eye. Helmarecht records the case of a man who, 

 having previously suffered from an inflammatory af- 

 fection of the eyes, became rather suddenly troubled 

 with images of a constant character floating before 

 the left eye. On examination, a morbid product was 

 found suspended in the posterior chamber just in front 

 of the lens. Soon afterwards the lower part of the 

 cornea was punctured, with the hope that the sepa- 

 rated foreign body might be washed out with the 

 evacuating aqueous humour, This actually occurred, 

 and it was then found to be a minute confervoid- 

 looking growth, bearing series of spores arranged in 

 chaplet-like fashion 1 . We will merely mention the 

 fact of the existence in India of a terrible disease 

 known by the name of c Madura foot, 3 in which a fungus, 

 closely allied to some Mucors, seems to extend outwards 

 from the bones and ligaments, growing destructively 

 through all the tissues of the pajt. In exhibiting a 

 specimen at a recent meeting of the Pathological 

 Society, Mr. Jabez Hogg expressed his belief that this 

 fungus takes origin from some altered tissue-elements 



1 See Robin's ' Vegetaux Parasites,' 1853, p. 370. He adds : ' Apres 

 1'operation le malade se trouva bien, et continua ses occupations sans 

 gene.' Robin also mentions a case (p. 364) in which a larger though 

 somewhat similar growth was met with by M. Gubler growing beneath 

 the skin of the back of the hand of a young man suffering from a gun- 

 shot wound. Several white bleb-like elevations of the skin were pro- 

 duced, which were found to have been occasioned by the growth in 

 question. 



