EFFECTS OF RADIANT ENERGY ON THE EYE. 673 



the largest being about one-fifth the diameter of the nucleus and the 

 smallest immeasurably fine. They also are usually round, but some- 

 times irregular in shape. Often they are contained within the eosin- 

 ophilic granules. Owing to their strong basophilic character, the 

 natural assumption would be that the,y represent chromatin extruded 

 from the nuclei. Such an origin however, cannot actually be traced. 

 On the contrary, the impression is given that the cytoplasm first 

 breaks up into, or is transformed into the eosinophilic granules, and 

 that the basophilic granules are formed primarily within the latter. 

 After intense exposures, as will be pointed out, the nucleus may 

 undergo disintegration, in which case some of the granules in the cyto- 

 plasm are undoubtedly nuclear fragments. 



(c) The wall, first so named by Hess,^''^ consists of a ring of deeply 

 staining closely packed cells at the periphery of the exposed area, 

 that is in the position corresponding to the pupillary margin at the 

 time of the exposure (PI. 3, Figs. 8 and 9). The cells are evidently in a 

 state of compression and in marked cases may be heaped upon each 

 other. The wall is visible after 19 hours but later becomes more 

 evident. The cells within it show only to a slight extent the changes 

 seen in the central area. Martin ^^^ assumed that the wall was due 

 to "submaximal damage at the pupillary margin." This, however, 

 is certainly not the case since submaximal exposures or any other 

 exposures do not give rise to a similar condition of the cells within 

 the pupillary area itself.* Hess explained the wall as a result of the 

 compression of the marginal cells by the sheet of swollen cells in the 

 pupillary area. This explanation seems undoubtedly correct. We 

 have found a similar if not identical wall four days after the injection 

 of staphylococci into the anterior chamber. The cells in the pupillary 

 area were swollen but did not contain basophilic and eosinophilic 

 granules. We have found such a wall also 24 hours after the injec- 

 tion of Lugol's solution into the anterior chamber, as described below 

 (page 676). As will also be pointed out, a somewhat similar but 

 yet different wall may be produced by the action of heat transmitted 

 by the iris (page 696). 



In spite of the marked changes in the cytoplasm of the exposed 

 cells, the nuclei remain comparatively normal in appearance except 



* Martin described in the capsule of one rabbit repeatedly exposed, a zone 

 of proliferated cells which somewhat resembled the wall of Hess. The pupil- 

 lary area, however, was otherwise free from abiotic changes. The condition 

 was attributed to the effects of abiotic radiations, but in our opinion was almost 

 certainly a congenital malformation such as we also have seen. 



