132 The Ciliary Muscle and TEES SG Laie. 
in lizards the nucleus only is concentrically laminated, and the outer 
fibres pass vertically and obliquely between the capsule and nucleus. 
Connections and Relations of the Lens.—The back of the lens 
lies in a hollow in the front of the vitreous humour, which is 
bounded by an extension of the hyaloid capsule of this humour, 
which is so distinct from the posterior lens capsule that I should 
hardly have mentioned their separateness had this not been recently 
denied. It bends inwards near the edge of the lens, and forms the 
posterior wall of the space known as Petit’s Canal. The lens may 
be removed in its entire capsule, without destroying the imtegrity 
of this partition between the vitreous humour and the lens-bed. 
But its chief support is the suspensory ligament which slings 
the lens to the ciliary processes. This arises from the whole inner 
surface of the ciliary body in front of the ora retine, from columnar 
epithelial-like bodies resting in the pigmented epithelium, and it is 
attached in a plaited manner to the capsule at the edge of the lens, 
advancing slightly upon the front, and to a less extent on the back 
of the lens. It is made of fibres, which chemically resemble yellow 
elastic tissue. They are remarkable for their hard, sharp outlines, 
and their clean fracture. They break up near the lens into brushes 
of very fine fibrillee, the interspaces between which are occupied with 
delicate membraniform expansions. Kdélhker regards the elongated 
bodies from which these fibres arise as special modifications of the 
connective tissue radial fibres of the retina, which are continued 
in front of the ora, the nervous retinal elements ceasing at this 
boundary line. The place of the attachment of the suspensory 
ligament to the lens varies within rather large limits in different 
animals ; in birds and reptiles it is nearer the front of the lens than 
in man. 
Let us now turn to the muscular apparatus of accommodation. 
Tn the human eye the ciliary muscle is the active factor of accom- 
modation. When the cornea and sclerotic are removed a greyish ring 
is seen behind the iris, on the outer surface of the ciliary body. It 
was considered ligamentous until Professor Briicke and Bowman 
nearly simultaneously discovered its muscularity. 
In mammalia the muscular tissue is unstriped. The deepest 
bundles of muscular fibre, those which are in close relation to the 
outer surfaces of the ciliary processes, are very obliquely directed ; 
collectively, they form a ring resembling a sphincter, yet not com- 
pletely separable from the other muscular bundles. Attention was 
first drawn to these circular fibres by the late H. Miller, who con- 
ceived that acting through the intervening ciliary processes they 
might compress the edge of the lens. 
The outermost bundles of muscular fibre run in meridional lines. 
They stream backwards from the cornea and lose themselves on the 
