Observations on the contractile tissue of the iris / by Joseph Lister.

  • Joseph Lister
Date:
[1853]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Observations on the contractile tissue of the iris / by Joseph Lister. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

    7/18 (page 5)
    alone; and the only measurements given by him of muscular fibre-cells from the eye refer to the same muscle in the sheep. It would seem, then, that with regard to the iris, Kolliker's proof falls short of the test of isolation of the fibre-cells. An operation for artificial pupil, by excision, performed by Mr. Wharton Jones, at University College Hospital, on the J 1th of August of the present year (1852), placed in my pos- session a perfectly fresh portion of a human iris, and, without knowing that Kolliker's observations had extended to the muscles of the eye, I proceeded to avail myself of this some- what rare opportunity of investigating the muscular tissue of the human iris. On placing under the microscope, four hours after the operation, portions of the tissue carefully teased out in wafer with needles, I found that some of the muscular fibre-cells had become isolated, and presented very characteristic appearances. I accordingly made camera lucida sketches of the finest specimens, which are reproduced on a smaller scale in the accompanying figures (see PI. I., fig. 7-11). I drew the last cell (fig. 8) 9^ hours after the operation. And here I may mention that I have not found the muscular fibre- cells by any means a very perishable tissue. After an iris has been soaking two or three days in water, the muscular tissue of the sphincter is still quite recognisable, not only by the nuclei, but also by the individual fibre-cells. Of the figures above referred to, (7) and (8) are examples of the most elongated cells that I saw. By reference to the scale It will be found that the cell (7) is about l-125th of an inch m length, and about 1-3750th of an inch in greatest breadth ; while (8) is a little shorter, but of about the same average breadth. Kolliker di\ddes muscular fibre-cells into three artificial divisions, according to their shape, of whicli the third contains the most elongated and most characteristic cells. Of this third division, the cells (7) and (8) are good examples, and, m fact, correspond in their measurements to average fibre-cells of the muscular coats of the intestines. Ihe cells (9) and (10), though less characteristic in respect of *i oAnn']'^r~^?^ of an inch in length, and 1 innn^ (1^) I'^OOth of an inch by 1-dUUUth of an inch, yet present the same peculiar delicate appearance and soft outline, and the same elongated nucleus, ol not very high refractive power relatively to the contents of the cell, but clearly defined. All these cells have the same flat or ribbon-hke form which is exhibited by the cell (8) at (a), where one edge has become turned up by a folding of the cell; at {b) there seemed a tendency to transverse arrangement ol the granules of this cell, which tendency is more strikingly b3