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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    believed not to exist. Moreover, the same objection applies to this opinion as was stated above—viz., that the disease for which the oil was instilled may have been of a parasitic nature, and further, that Sachs, the eminent mycologist, has shown that oil is a valuable parasiticide for such fungi, and that some aural surgeons on that account (Yon Troltscli, for instance) recommend the installation of oil in otitis parasitica. That the recognition and removal of the fungus is fob lowed by the cure of the disease, is indisputaole, but whether the fungus is directly causative or only a concomitant and aggravator of already existing disease, whether some pe¬ culiar condition of the tissues of the canal pre-exists favour¬ able to the germination of the spores once deposited, or whether, as some affirm, certain diseased conditions of the tissues can give rise, ab initio, to these low forms of vegetable life, are questions ably contested, but, for lack of evidence, undecided, and seem, indeed, to be further than ever from being so, in view of the failure of Wreden to propagate the fungus in a healthy ear. That this fungus is a true parasite and not, as de Bary has affirmed, a saprophyte, is conclu¬ sively proved by the researches of Politzer, Weber-Liel, Wreden, and others. These, indeed, are but conjectures that afford no aid in the solution of the mystery surrounding the origin of the disease ; but it is well that this difficulty does not affect its therapeutics; for, as I already said, the removal of the para¬ site ensures the cure of the disease; a result which is sug¬ gestive of the question—What are the curative measures? Before answering this question, however, it is necessary to speak of the signs by which one may readily recognise a case of ear disease, due to aspergillus. Speaking generally, the subjective symptoms from which the patient suffers aie those usually met with in cases of ceruminal accumulation in the auditory canal, but, in addition, there is pain, not lancinating, like that of acute tympanitis, or the dull and throbbing pain of otitis furunculosa, but a burning deep- seated sensation, as if pepper grains were lying in the depths
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