84 Trans. Acad. Sci. of St. Louis. 



After a somewhat lengthy description of the different 

 membranes of the eye of Typhlotriton, in which I find 

 also the statement that no bloodvessels enter the eye, he 

 summarizes as follows : 



"1. The eye lies just beneath the skin. The skin is but 

 little thinner over the eye than elsewhere and shows no 

 structural characters different from those of the neigh- 

 boring regions. 



2. The eve muscles have vanished. 



3. The lens has vanished and its place has in part 

 become filled by an ingrowth of choroidal tissue contain- 

 ing pigment. 



4. The vitreal body is very small, if present at all. 

 The vitreal cavity is a funnel-shaped space. 



5. The pigment layer of the retina is a pavement epi- 

 thelium with indistinct cell boundaries, and with occa- 

 sional pigmented processes extending into or through 

 the nuclear layers. 



6. Rods and cones are not formed. 



7. The outer reticular layer has disappeared. 



8. The inner and outer nuclear layers form one layer, 

 cells indistinguishable from each other. 



9. The inner reticular layer, as usually with degen- 

 erate eyes, is relatively well developed. 



10. The ganglionic layer is well represented and con- 

 nected with the brain by the well developed optic nerve, 

 etc." 



When reading this, after having myself examined a 

 number of specimens of Typhlotriton eyes, I could not 

 understand how such a description was possible. Surely, 

 in my specimens of Typhlotriton, the crystalline lens, for 

 instance, which Eigenmann said had vanished, was one 

 of the most prominent features, and there were numerous 

 other discrepancies. 



A little later I came into possession of a second paper 

 written by Carl II. Eigenmann together with W. A. 

 Denny, entitled: "The eyes of the blind vertebrates of 

 North America. III. The structure and ontogenetic 



