1 1'2 Suspensory /./'./////</< of the Crystalline Lens, $c. [Fel>. .">. 



that some of these " pass into continuity with the posterior capsule.'' 

 Tims "attachment," "joining," and "passing into continuity 

 the expressions used to indicate the connexion. It is true that t la- 

 last is employed with regard to the suspensory fibres, but since t i 

 as described, are, like the suspensory ligament, derived from the 

 hyaloid membrane and pass like it to the lens capsule, I think we 

 may assume that the author in " Quain " regards them fibres and 

 ligament as of like nature and mode of union with the lens capsule. 



Sehwalbe (' Anatomie der Sinnesorgane ') says the capsule is firmly 

 united (venoachsen) with the zonula. Later, he speaks of the outer 

 or zonular layer of the lens capsule being joined (i Verbindung) to the 

 zonula ; then again of its firm connexion (fester Zusammenhang) with 

 the zonula when he uses this intimate union as an argument in 

 favour of the zonular layer of the capsule being of connective tissue 

 origin. In describing the zonula he says that its parts fuse (ve>~- 

 ar^meZzfln) with the capsule without any perceptible line of demarcation, 

 and probably form the above-mentioned zonular layer. Finally, the 

 mode of fusion is as follows : The coarser bundles break up into a 

 network of finer fibrils, which spread out on the surface of the capsule 

 and, becoming pointed, lose themselves (sick verlieren) in the sub- 

 stance of the capsule. 



From the various statements, I think it is clear that the general 

 notion is that there is a direct continuity of substance between the 

 suspensory ligament and the capsule. Now the observation which I 

 ain about to describe seems rather to indicate that the suspensory 

 ligament is only cemented to the capsule. , 



Upon opening some ox eyes that were in' an advanced state of 

 decomposition, I found that the lens was quite free in the interior of 

 the eyeball ; and, on examining it, I found that it was still enclosed in 

 its capsule. This freeing of the lens I find to be the rule in such cases. 

 On opening the capsule, the lens substance escaped, and on washing 

 and staining the capsule with piorocarmine and other dyes, and on 

 examining it in various ways, I have failed to find any roughnet-a ot 

 surface, difference of thickness, or, in short, any indication of a rup- 

 ture of tissue. The zonula seems to come away intact : is not broken 

 or torn away. In fact, the decomposition seems to weaken the 

 cohesion of eome cement substance by which the zonula adheres to 

 the surface of the lens capsule. 



This observation seems to weaken the argument for an outer layer 

 of the capsule being of connective tissue origin, and it may throw 

 some light on cases of solution and atrophy of the suspensory liga- 

 ment, on cases of detachment of the ligament from its insertions, and 

 on cases of luxation of the lens. In any case it has a very direct 

 bearing on the still unsettled question of the development of the lens 

 capsule. 



