On a visible stellation of the normal and of the cataractous crystalline lens of the human eye / by John Tweedy.

  • John Tweedy
Date:
[1874]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On a visible stellation of the normal and of the cataractous crystalline lens of the human eye / by John Tweedy. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

    3/18
    [Reprinted, from the Royal London Ophthalmic Hospital Reports, /Val. vili, Part I.] /V/^. 5 '^4 'j-' i I U' . ^ \#/ ON A VISIBLE STELLATION OF .SHE NORMAL AND OF THE CATARACTOUS CRYSTALLINE JUENS OF THE HUMAN EYE. . * fnj*Vr By John Twkedv, M.R.C.S., Assistant Medical Officer in the Skin Department of University College Hospital, London; and Clinical Assistant at the Royal London Ophthalmic Hospital. The striation, or, more correctly speaking, the stellation of the normal crystalline lens of the human eye is well known as a post-mortem appearance, hut few persons are aware that it can readily be seen by oblique illumination in the living eye. Nearly three years ago I described elsewhere* this stellation as observed in the healthy human eye, and endeavoured to explain the method by which it may be brought into view. The latter was by no means an easy task, for I could only give general directions as to plan to he adopted, and could not definitely state how the rays of the Stella could he surely and certainly seen. The mode of procedure, however, is that employed in ordinary oblique illumination of the anterior parts of the eyeball by the aid of artificial light. The observer must endeavour to obtain the greyish glistening reflection from the anterior capsule, and must look more obliquely along the anterior surface of the crystalline lens from the side opposite to that on which the light falls than in the ordinary oblique illumination. If by this means a view lie obtained of the anterior stella of the lens it will be found to consist of fine, dark, radiating, and slightly undulating lines, about ten in number, extending from near the centre of the anterior surface of the crystalline lens to its extreme peri- phery. It will be seen in Fig. 1, which has been taken from a normal eye, that, although the rays are united towards the centre of the anterior surface, they do not all start from Lancet, 1871, vol. ii, p. 776. b