On a membrane lining the fossa patellaris of the corpus vitreum / by T.P. Anderson Stuart.

  • Anderson Stuart, Thomas Peter, 1856-1920.
Date:
[1891]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On a membrane lining the fossa patellaris of the corpus vitreum / by T.P. Anderson Stuart. 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.

    3/8
    [From the Proceedings of the Royal Society, Vol. 49.] “On a Membrane lining the Fossa Patellaris of the Corpus Vitreum.” By T. P. Anderson Stuart, M.D., Professor of Physiology in the* University of Sydney, N.S.W. Com- municated by Professor Schafer, F.R.S. Received January 12, 1891. The 9th edition of Quain’s ‘ Anatomy,’ 1882, after giving a de- scription of the hyaloid membrane and its connexions, says, “ According to the account usually given, the hyaloid membrane divides in front into two layers : an anterior, continued forwards as the zonule of Zinn, and a posterior, passing behind the lens, the canal of Petit being contained between them. The above description is based upon a renewed original investigation into the relations of the structures which support the lens, and is confirmatory of the state- ments of Meckel, Henle, Brailey, and others, and opposed to those of Iwanoff.” Now the description adopted by Quain discards the poste- rior layer passing behind the lens. The vitreous humour, according to it, lies immediately against the posterior layer of the lens capsule, and at the canal of Petit may, perhaps, in part occupy the interstices of the suspensory fibres, which are said to pass from the zonula to the periphery of the lens capsule. Thus the whole anterior surface of the vitreous is bare, that is, is not invested by any membrane. 1 cannot agree with this view, for, in the eye of the ox, I have demonstrated to the satisfaction of large numbers of my students and many members of the medical profession in Sydney, and at the Inter- colonial Medical Congress in Melbourne, 1889, that there is un- doubtedly a membrane in this situation. I have found it likewise in the eye of the sheep, goat, dog, and porpoise, so that I entertain no doubt of its general occurrence, notwithstanding that Schwalbe, in 1887 (‘Anatomie der Sinnesorgane’), adheres to the view of the non-existence of the membrane. This view was more explicitly set forth by Schwalbe in the anatomical part of De Wecker and Landolt’s ‘Traite complet d’Ophthalmologie ’ (Paris, 1886). Here, at p. 519, vol. 11, he says what I translate as follows :— “ In the region of the ora serrata the hyaloid begins to gradually thicken and to change its structure, becoming the zonula ciliaris. From this point it constitutes the anterior wall of the canal of Petit; the posterior wall is identical with the anterior surface of the jelly of the vitreous body, which is differentiated from the liquid contents of the canal of Petit merely by its more dense surface. A cleavage of the zonula, near the ora serrata, into an outer leaflet representing the fibres of the zonula and an inner one lining the fossa patellaris does not take place. Consequently the canal cf Petit is to be compared to the other clefts in the jelly of the vitreous body. This description b