The histology of the eye / by John Whitaker Hulke.

  • John Hulke
Date:
[1869]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The histology of the eye / by John Whitaker Hulke. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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

    6/30 (page 230)
    but never co-extensive with more tlian a very small fraction of the entire corneal area. (Fig. 2.) Fig. 2. Vertical Section of the Cornea. The cell-nets extend in planes which intersect one another at every possible angle, preserving always more or less parallelism to the corneal surfaces. Corpuscles lying in the same plane intercommunicate very freely through their branches, and less freely with those in the neighbouring more superficial and deeper planes; and in this way they collectively form a system of plasmatic canals, which pervades the entire cornea. The interstitial fhrous tissue consists of broad flat lameUiform bundles, iaterwoven with the cell-nets, necessarily also in planes more or less parallel to the corneal surfaces—an arrangement of the tissues which gives the quasi-laminated appearance observable in vertical sections of the cornea. In the foetus, the fibrillation of the bundles is very distinct; and in the adult it is also evident. Blood-vessels are entirely absent from the healthy adult cornea, the nutrition of which is wholly carried on by the corpuscular system, which draws its plasma from the vessels of the sclerotic and conjunctiva. Its nerves, however, are numerous. The distribution of the coarser bundles is easily demonstrable. They enter the circumference of the cornea, and converge towards its centre, repeatedly dividing and uniting in a plexus, most of the bundles of wtdch tend towards the anterior surlVice. Near here they recom- bine in a plexus of very fine bundles, fr-om which minute branches are detached towards the anterior elastic lamiaa, which they per- forate, and reach the anterior epithelium. (Fig. 3.) The exact relation of the nerve-fibres to the epithehum is so dehcate a subject of inquiry, that it cannot surprise us that different opinions have