EFFECTS PRODUCED IN ANTEEIOR AND POSTEEIOK ■ CHAMBERS. 553 



the still transparent retina like a tumour, but is sometimes deserted by 

 its inmate, which then settles at another place, and is encapsuled anew. 



The observations here related do not exclude the possibility that, 

 besides the bladder-worms which subsequently pass into the vitreous 

 humour, there are also some which have developed there from the 

 first. But while no positive argument can be given in favour of 

 this idea, on the other hand, all we know of the development of 

 Cydicereus leads to the supposition that the first stages must always 

 be spent in a vascular tissue. We are, however, justified in believing 

 that the exit of the bladder-worm from the surrounding tissue might 

 sometimes take place at an earlier stage of development, at a time 

 when the changes in the retina had not yet attained their subsequent 

 extent, and were therefore less noticeable. But the incipient stages 

 of the Cysticercoid disease in the eye have as yet eluded investi- 

 gation. ^ 



In the bladder-worms inhabiting the anterior chamber of the eye, 

 an early exit is perhaps more frequent than among those infesting the 

 vitreous humour, as one could, indeed, infer from the fact that the 

 aqueous humour presents much less resistance to the growing bladder- 

 worm. Indeed, the Cysticerci are usually found free in the aqueous 

 humour. Yet there are cases which demonstrate a connection be- 

 tween these free forms and the iris ; an actual union has, indeed, been 

 repeatedly observed.^ Thus Dalrymple observed a case where the 

 bladder was so fastened to the iris that the latter looked as though 

 perforated by it. In anotlier case (recorded by 

 Teale), the worm connected by its cyst with the 

 iris was hardly bigger than a hemp-seed, and from 

 the shortness of the neck might be seen to be quite 

 a young Cysticercus. The case lately described by 

 Kiichenmeister^ ought also to be noted ; for here, 

 besides the free Cysticercus in the anterior chamber, 

 there was also a connective tissue cyst adherent to 

 the posterior wall of the iris, which latter was ^lo. 299.— Bladder- 



11 IT -J 1 1 1 1 r.' 'J worm in the anterior 



reasonably regarded as its bladder. Since it con- chamber <>f the eye, 

 tained only a clear fluid, it must have closed up afterv.Wecker. (x3.) 

 after the exit of its inmate and become filled with serum. 



The bladder-worms of the interior of the eye are not the only ones 

 found free within serous cavities. In the ventricles of the brain they 



' The smallest bladder-worms seen by v. Graefe measured 3 to 4 mm. In three or 

 four weeks after the appearance of the first, he noticed, with the ophthalmoscope, marked 

 changes. Some weeks later, the worms had a diameter of 5 to 6 mm., and after two years 

 they had increased to 11 mm. Archivf. Opkthalmologie, Bd. xii., 2, p. 188. 



' See V. Weoker, "Handbuch d. ges. Augenheilkunde, " Bd. iv., p. 575. 



" "Parasiten," second edition, p. 249. 



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