Defcription of the Eye of the SeaL 275 



viation from the ordinary courfe of nature was 

 a matter of fad. I procured two eyes of a feal, 

 caught in the north feas, and which were prc- 

 ferved for my ufe in rum ; and examined them 

 both by difleftion. The following fhort account 

 of the peculiarities in the eye of this animal, may 

 not be unacceptable -to the Literary and Philo- 

 fophical Society. 



The form of the eye, when deprived of the 

 adipofe membrane and mufcles (in which ftate 

 I received it) was quite globular, meafuring 

 three inches and three quarters in circumference. 



The fclcrotis was rather thinner than that of 

 a (heep; but diminifhed gradually, as is ufual, 

 from the pofterior part of the eye, to its jundion 

 with the ciliary ligament. From the great 

 breadth of the ciliary ligament, which meafured 

 a quarter of an inch, the thinneft part of the fcle- 

 rotis was not contiguous to the cornea, as in the 

 human and flieep's eye, but furrounded the 

 middle of the eye. So that the outer membrane, 

 or coat, grew firft gradually thinner, to the mid- 

 dle of the eye, and then became fuddenly thick, 

 continuing fo to its jundtion with the cornea. 



The cornea was horizontally oblong, the ver- 

 tical diameter being about 75 of an inch, while 

 the horizontal was -85; fo that the horizontal 

 diameter exceeded the vertical by one-tenth of 

 an inch. 



T 2 The 



