Actinomycosis of the orbit is not known to occur as a primary disease ; the fungous infection, as a rule, invades the orbital cavity by extension from the surrounding tissues. Because of the preexisting involvement of the head, these patients are rarely under the care of ophthalmologists—a fact which accounts for the small number of reports in the ophthalmic literature. To Cavara,1 the author of the volume on "Ocular Mycosis" in the "Trattato di micopatologia umana," belongs the credit for extricating from the general medical literature all instances of actinomycosis in which orbital complications were observed. Among the seventeen cases collected by Cavara, some are presented in a way which can hardly satisfy an ophthalmologist, since an inadequate orbital symptomatology is given, without reference to the visual functions or to the ophthalmoscopic findings.
In this country no case of orbital actinomycosis in a human being has been reported.