of the Capsule of the Crystalline Lens and Ciliary Zone. 7 



tention. It consists of about 80 larger radii or ridges regu- 

 larly arranged around the capsule, and pointing to the cen- 

 tre of the lens, but terminating abruptly where they touch 

 the capsule. These ridges swell out and assume a bulging 

 appearance towards their middle, from whence they divide 

 both ways into more slender ramifications. Of these smaller 

 branches, those which proceed to the capsule anastomose to- 

 gether branch to branch of the contiguous larger ridges, so as 

 to support or act upon, equally, almost every point of the cir- 

 cumference of the capsule. Those branches that go out in 

 the opposite direction are nearly twice as numerous ; and as 

 they lay hold of the retina, they must support or act upon it, 

 because the ciliary ligament which binds the ciliary body to 

 the sclerotic coat is situate directly behind the bulging part of 

 the radii. The breadth of the ciliary ligament is never equal 

 to that of the ciliary body, consequently part of the ramifi- 

 cations of each ridge must be loose both ways ; so that what- 

 ever be the function of the radii, the ciliary ligament must be 

 the fulcrum or point of support on which the action of the 

 smaller ramifications bears, both ways. 



Reflecting on these circumstances, (the force of which the 

 reader will better understand by examining the parts with his 

 own eyes,) and on the fibrous structure and fleshy appearance 

 of the ridges of the zone and belt surrounding the capsule, — 

 the muscularity of these parts appeared to me highly probable, 

 particularly when the elegant regularity of their arrangement 

 and their constancy in all classes of animals, even where no 

 ciliary processes were to be found, were taken into view; 

 together with the manifest provision made by nature to supply 

 them plentifully with fresh blood, contrary to what is found 

 in parts whose office is merely ligamentous. 



Unwilling, however, to depend on such evidence alone, I en- 

 deavoured to find a method by which muscular fibre might be 

 distinguished from other tissues, for which, as in the present 

 instance, it might be mistaken. The description given by such 

 physiological writers as I had access to, of the changes pro- 

 duced on some of the animal tissues by boiling water, sug- 

 gested to my mind an experimental inquiry with that agent, 

 from which I was enabled to deduce the test I was in search 

 of. The general results of the inquiry were ; — that all animal 

 tissue that was certainly muscular contracted in the direction 

 of the fibre, when immersed in boiling water: all tissue that 

 was certainly tendinous or ligamentous contracted in the di- 

 rection of the fibre, but more largely. By the contraction, 

 muscle lost about one third, tendon more than one half its 

 length. All purely membranous envelopes, such as the peri- 

 toneum, pericardium, &c. contracted like tendon, but in all 



