Some of the morbid actions of the straight muscles and cornea of the eye explained : and their treatment considered / by Everard Home.

  • Everard Home
Date:
[1797]
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Some of the morbid actions of the straight muscles and cornea of the eye explained : and their treatment considered / by Everard Home. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by UCL Library Services. The original may be consulted at UCL (University College London)

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    demonstrate that there are living parts which have neither the one nor the other. Tendons and ligaments in a natural state are instances of this kind. That these parts are not supplied with red blood is obvious to the eye of a common observer; no illustration will therefore be required to substantiate that proof. That they are not endowed with sensibility was, I believe, first taught by the late Dr. William Hunter,* who published the following account of it.-f- In a case where the last joint of the ring-finger had been torn off, half an inch of the tendon of the flexor muscle projected beyond the stump; this it was thought right to remove; and to ascertain whether it was possessed of sensibility, the follow- ing experiment was made: a piece of cord the thickness of the tendon was passed round the wrist and along the side of the finger, so as to project even with the end of the tendon; the man was then told to turn away his head, and tell which of the two were cut through; the tendon was divided, and the man declared it was the string, not having felt the smallest degree of pain. This proof is satisfactory; but that the cornea is possessed of life, by no means rests upon any negative proofs; which I shall now endeavour to explain. The cornea in its structure is made up of membranous la- minae. One of these appears to be a portion of the tunica conjunctiva, but it is either so extremely thin, or so intimately connected with the lamina next to it, as not to admit of more than a very partial separation from it; another lamina, as I * This doctrine was first taught by Dr. Hunter, in the year 1746. Haller made experiments proving the same thing in 1750. f Medical Observ. and Inquir. Vol. IV. page 343. D 2
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