DR KNOX on the Comparative Anatomy of the Eye. 61 



the circumference of the capsule of the lens, forming in its pas- 

 sage numerous longitudinal folds, and small projecting fimbri- 

 ated bodies, by which, in a natural state, the transparent hu- 

 mours are connected with the superjacent ciliary body. When 

 examined with a good glass, these folds are remarkably distinct, 

 and the whole bears the closest resemblance, in its distribution, 

 to the true ciliary body and processes. I have, therefore, ven- 

 tured to call them the Internal or Transparent Ciliary Body, 

 (or the ciliary body of the hyaloid membrane), in contradistinc- 

 tion to that of the choroid. 



From the internal surface of the transparent ciliary body just 

 described, is detached a membrane, which being inserted into 

 the capsule of the lens, somewhat more posteriorly or central, 

 thus contributes to complete the triangular shaped canal of 

 Petit*. A number of appearances will immediately suggest 

 themselves, which the above details readily explain ; such, for 

 example, as the continuity of all the parietes of the canal of Pe- 

 tit, after the removal of the transparent humours from the eye- 

 ball, and the irregularities which the external paries of the ca- 

 nal presents, when distended with air, which induced the French 

 to call it " godronnee," and is owing to the bulging out of the 

 delicate tunic occupying the intermediate spaces of the folds or 

 processes, which being strengthened, and more firmly bound 

 down, do not expand like the other parts of the membrane. 



* This may be considered as the hyaloid itself. Had I been aware at the time 

 these dissections were performed, that an excellent continental anatomist (M. RISES), 

 had formed similar opinions regarding these internal ciliary processes, I should, per- 

 haps, not have repeated my dissections so often as I did ; but I was forcibly struck 

 with the evident incorrectness of the descriptions given in some of the latest and best 

 elementary works on the Anatomy of Man ; and I was, moreover, anxious to disprove 

 the idea lately adopted, that these folds or processes are fibrous or muscular bodies. 

 M. RIBES' work has not yet reached this country ; and I allude simply to a brief 

 notice contained in an early number of the " Bulletin de Sc. Med? 



