diff --git a/HTMLparser.c b/HTMLparser.c
index 5b7016be..e192f500 100644
--- a/HTMLparser.c
+++ b/HTMLparser.c
@@ -2274,7 +2274,6 @@ htmlNewInputStream(htmlParserCtxtPtr ctxt) {
     input->free = NULL;
     input->version = NULL;
     input->consumed = 0;
-    input->length = 0;
     return(input);
 }
 #endif
diff --git a/include/libxml/parser.h b/include/libxml/parser.h
index f5628268..31be8aed 100644
--- a/include/libxml/parser.h
+++ b/include/libxml/parser.h
@@ -64,7 +64,7 @@ struct _xmlParserInput {
     const xmlChar *base;              /* Base of the array to parse */
     const xmlChar *cur;               /* Current char being parsed */
     const xmlChar *end;               /* end of the array to parse */
-    int length;                       /* length if known */
+    int length;                       /* unused */
     int line;                         /* Current line */
     int col;                          /* Current column */
     unsigned long consumed;           /* How many xmlChars already consumed */
diff --git a/parserInternals.c b/parserInternals.c
index 79708cf0..e798f38c 100644
--- a/parserInternals.c
+++ b/parserInternals.c
@@ -1548,6 +1548,12 @@ xmlNewEntityInputStream(xmlParserCtxtPtr ctxt, xmlEntityPtr entity) {
 	}
 	return(NULL);
     }
+
+    /*
+     * We create an input stream with a NULL buffer here and make the
+     * input pointers reference the entity content directly. This is
+     * unusual and somewhat dangerous.
+     */
     input = xmlNewInputStream(ctxt);
     if (input == NULL) {
 	return(NULL);
@@ -1558,9 +1564,9 @@ xmlNewEntityInputStream(xmlParserCtxtPtr ctxt, xmlEntityPtr entity) {
     if (entity->length == 0)
         entity->length = xmlStrlen(entity->content);
     input->cur = entity->content;
-    input->length = entity->length;
-    input->end = &entity->content[input->length];
+    input->end = &entity->content[entity->length];
     input->entity = entity;
+
     return(input);
 }