130 THE ADVENTURES OF A GENTLEMAN 



I must enter a little into the anatomical descrip- 

 tion of it, to make the subject at all intelligible; 

 though here again the reader would act more wisely 

 to apply to an intelligent practitioner, and ask him 

 to show him an eye, and explain its structure. 



The eye-ball is enclosed in a white membrane 

 called the tunica conjunctiva, which, after embracing 

 the globe of the eye, extends itself over the interior 

 surface of both eye-lids. The sclerotic coat forms 

 the external or horny membrane of the eye, begin- 

 ning from the optic nerve, and terminating in 

 the margin of the cornea. The choroides is a 

 dark membrane, also beginning from the optic 

 nerve, and lining the interior surface of the sclerotic 

 coat, till it approaches the margin of the cornea; 

 and in its anterior portion it forms the circular 

 membrane called the iris. Here, as is well known, 

 a circle is left; the choroides terminating at the 

 inner margin of the iris, in plaits or folds called the 

 ciliary processes, so as to leave what to the ignorant 

 appears merely a black spot, known as the pupil, 

 but which in fact is rather a perforation allowing 

 the passage of the rays of light, when refracted by 

 the crystalline lens, to reach every portion of the 



