320 BACTERIOLOGY OF THE EYE 



Under the name of ' botryomyeosis ' Bargerton described a tumour- 

 like vascular growth in the cornea. It had a broad base and a nodular 

 surface, and developed after an injury to the cornea. Microscopi- 

 cally it consisted of vascular granulation tissue. Dor and Bargerton 

 considered the changes to be identical with the botryomyeosis of the 

 skin described in man (which affects the face and the hands, two cases 

 being recorded in the eyebrows) . In these cases a fleshy fungoid granula- 

 tion tissue tumour formed a few weeks after an injury (like the growth 

 in horses after castration) ; on removal it rapidly healed, and did not 

 recur. The condition was considered by Poncet and Dor not to be 

 due to the Botryococcus equi, but to a special Botryococcits, 1 an 

 organism which resembled the Stapliylococcus pyogenes aureus in 

 almost every point, and by many is considered to be identical with it. 

 The chief difference, according to Poncet and Dor, is that their coccus, 

 unlike the Staphylococcus, does not form pus, but causes an exudation 

 of lymphocytes. The bouillon culture remains clear (in contrast to 

 the Staphylococcus) ; an orange-yellow mass forms at the bottom. 

 On solid media a thick orange-yellow and slightly wrinkled slime 

 forms, which when examined shows Gram-positive cocci, resembling 

 a typical Sarcinee. In the later stages of botryomyeosis of the skin 

 hyaline bodies ' grains muriformes ' should form. (In the granula- 

 tion tissue in the cornea neither such granules nor the Boti-yococci 

 have been demonstrated. There is no proof that these cases were 

 anything different from what has been described in the literature as 

 ' granulomata.') 



Dor and Bargerton consider their case as identical with the one 

 described by Schirmer and Reishaus (Beitr. Zeit., August 31, 1899) 

 as a ' fibroma of the cornea,' in which these authors found appear- 

 ances which they, with Busse, considered to be saccharomyces 

 Hete. 



Further investigation is necessary to determine the pathogeneais of 

 these and other corneal growths. 



The literature is found in a paper by J. Bargerton, ' Un Gas de 

 Botryomycose de la Cornee,' These de Lyon, 1905, and Ten Sietoff, 

 Weekblad, 1899. 



A rare condition is reported by Lundsgaard (K. M. f. A., 1900, 

 xxxviii., p. 13), Stower (Inter. Med. Congr., Moscow, 1897, vi., p. 29, 

 and A. f. 0., 1898, xlviii., p. 178), G. F. Keiper and Severance 

 Burrage (Amer. Med. Ass., 1907, Atlantic City, Ophth. Sec., p. 87), as 

 due to Hefse. 



1 Identical with the Micrococcus asciformis (Johne). 



