Myringomycosis aspergillina (fungus ear diseases) / by James Patterson Cassells.

  • Cassells, James Patterson, 1837-1884.
Date:
1875
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Myringomycosis aspergillina (fungus ear diseases) / by James Patterson Cassells. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Medical Journal, already alluded to, no case bad been seen, or if so, at least reported, in this country. This supposed non-existence of parasitic ear disease in England was variously accounted for by aural surgeons, those most competent to express an opinion regarding its non-existence as due to some climatic peculiarity unfavour¬ able to this low form of vegetable life—an opinion seemingly well founded, for, as I have just said, till now no case had been recognised or recorded by British aural surgeons. So much for the history of the progress of discovery of aural fungi. Concerning the origin and development of these fungi, it is impossible to speak with any degree of certainty; indeed, in the present state of our knowledge, to do so would be unscien¬ tific. One important fact has been observed, that whereas pcnicillium is found nearly always associated with the asper- gillus fungus out of the body, in the auditory meatus the latter fungus only occurs; nor from the debris removed in cases of aspergillus ear disease has it been possible to rear the penicillium. The number of cases of ear fungi at present recorded amount to about two hundred, so it does not seem unreasonable to regard this fact as settled,whatever maybe its value or bearing. TVTeden thinks it is a disease more com¬ monly met with in those who live in damp habitations, and lie noticed a case of frequent relapse due to sitting at a window, the sides of which were abundantly covered with the Aspergillus spores. He, in common with Notling, has noted the history of cases in which the disease followed the introduction of a geranium leaf into the meatus for the relief of toothache. Inasmuch as toothache, of a kind, is a common symptom of some ear diseases, it is not improbable that the fungus existed before the introduction of the remedy named. Bezold considers that the prevalence of parasitic ear disease in Germany is owing to the habit that prevails there #of instilling oil into the meatus as a domestic remedy in many ear diseases, forgetting altogether the fact, of which possibly he may not be cognisant, that a like habit prevails as extensively in Britain, 'where hitherto the disease had not been found, and was