THE MICROSCOPE. 39 



attached to about % the circumference of this lens-shaped 

 mass, but were otherwise free and intact, as was the cornea. 

 Directly back of this mass, forming almost a complete cast of 

 its posterior surface, but attached to it only by a small cord of 

 what seemed to be ossifying tissue, was a nearly circular piece 

 of bone, averaging about i mm. in thickness, and having on 

 its posterior convex surface two sharp processes, the longer of 

 which projected about 3 mm. backward in the direction of the 

 canalis hyaloidca. This plate of bone was attached by tough 

 fibrous membrane to the choroid and retina in the region of 

 the ora serrata, for about 7 mm ; the rest of its periphery 

 being free. Whether this line of attachment was superior, in- 

 ferior or lateral, could not be determined, as no attention had 

 been paid to the bearings of the eye, at the enucleation, 

 and it was afterwards found to be so deformed that identifica- 

 tion of its original axes was impossible. At some points of its 

 circumference the plate of bone was incomplete ; ossifying 

 membrane taking the place of fully formed bone. 



The smaller piece of bone undoubtedly took the place of 

 the central and anterior part of the lens. There could be no 

 possibility of ossification of the vitreous here, as the anterior 

 surface of that body was clearly marked out by a separate 

 piece of bone. 



The origin of this second piece could only be conjectur- 

 ed, as no recognizable traces of hyaloid membrane, nor pos 

 terior nor anterior capsules, were present. The bone was 

 thickest along the anteroposterior axis of the eye, a fact 

 which, in connection with the spine projecting back at that 

 point, might indicate as the departing point, the junction 

 of the canalis hyaloidea with the layer of the hyaloid lining 

 the fossa patellaris ; granting of course that such a layer ex- 

 ists. On the other hand, the bone may have taken the place 

 of the posterior capsule ; or again, it may have been merely an 

 ossified exudate from the chorio capillaris. The case differs 

 considerably from any that I have found reported. In the 

 cases mentioned by Knapp and Goldzieher (Vols. II. and IX. 

 Arch, of Oph.) of more or less complete bony septa behind 

 the lens, there could be no doubt that the ossification pro- 

 ceeded from the periphery. The occurrence of such a plate 



