FiLARIA IN THE EYE. 
663 
crystalline ; they were one tenth of a line long, and moved 
sluggishly when placed in warm water. The examination 
took place immediately after the operation. In neither case 
was the opacity complete, and the lenticular substance was 
soft (Lib. cit., Zweites Heft. Vorwert, p. 9). 
M. Davaine also mentions a comparatively recent case of 
fdaria in the anterior chamber of the eye, but full particulars 
do not appear to be published. The case previously cited is 
by Sichel,* from whom we gather that the specimen was 
brought fonvard by Quadri, of Naples. The living worm wms 
in the vitreous humour of a woman, thirty years of age. The 
function of the eye was perfectly normal. The latter au¬ 
thority exhibited the parasite in situ at a meeting of the 
Ophthalmological Congress held at Brussels. 
Von Ammon found a filaria in a lenticular cataract, of 
which the nucleus w r as firm and the exterior pulpy. The 
cataract was extracted. He has figured the animal of its 
natural size and magnified.-}- 
Then, again, there is the case observed by Gescheidt,J in 
which Von Ammon operated for congenital cataract. In this 
case there were four Filariae, of the genus distoma. The largest 
measured one sixth, the smallest one fifteenth of an inch.§ 
Cobbold considers them embryonic nematodes, which have 
accidentally or otherwise selected the human body as their 
intermediary host. 
Mauthner|| says he saw what he supposed to be a dead 
filaria floating about in the perfectly clear vitreous humour of 
a man forty years of age. 
Von Wecker, the author of the second half of the fourth 
volume of f Graefe and Saemisclf s Augenheilkunde/ gives 
no new cases, but mentions a case of supposed Filaria 
spiralis (?) which he considered a rudimentary persistent 
hyaloid artery. 
The presence of filaria within the human eye is, beyond a 
doubt, of rare occurrence, no instances on record are of re¬ 
cent date, and our more modern text books and works on 
ophthalmology either omit them altogether or else refer but 
briefly to the few cases herein mentioned. 
Having occurred once, filaria w ill doubtless be found again, 
and if there exists a “ Filaria sanguinis hominis /’ asDrs. T. R. 
* ‘ Iconographic Ophthalmologicpie,’ p.707 ; also Zander, ‘Der Augenspie- 
gel,’ 2 Auflage, p. 190. 
f ‘ Klinische Darstellung,’ Pt 1, vol, xii, figs. 22 and 23. 
X c Zeitscbrift fiir die Ophthalmologie,’ iii Bandes, iv Heft., p. 405 ; 4 Die 
Entozoa des Auges, u.s.w.’ 
§ ‘ Zeitscbrift fiir die Ophthalmologie,’ vol. iii, pp. 75, 76. 
|| £ M. Optischen Fehler des Auges,’ 1872. 
