OF SIGHT. 171 



263. The other circular membrane (260) bears the 

 name of ligamentum or corpus ciliare ; and, inclining 

 backwards, lies at a distance from the iris. Its external 

 edge is thick* and adheres to the ciliary circle (260): 

 the internal is thin and adherent to the margin of the 

 capsule of the lens. The brown pigment is copiously 

 diffused over it. 



Its anterior surface, lying opposite to the uvea, is 

 striated. The posterior, lying upon the vitreous hu- 

 mour, is beautifully separated into about 70 flocculi, 

 remarkable for an indescribably minute and elegant set 

 of blood-vessels. These flocculi are named ciliary pro- 

 cesses and their use is still an object of enquiry .-f 



264. In the bulb of the eye, whose coats we have 

 now described, are contained the humours, of three 

 principal kinds. 



The posterior, and by far the greater, part of the 

 globe is filled by the vitreous humour, proportionally 

 larger in the human subject, especially after puberty, 

 than in other animals, and so dispersed in innumerable 

 drops throughout the cells of the delicate hyaloid mem- 

 brane that this membranaceo-lymphatic body has the 

 singular appearance of a tremulous jelly. 



265. Anteriorly it adheres to, and by means of the 

 zona ciliaris surrounds, the capsule containing the crys- 

 talline {ens, immediately around which lies the water 

 i>f Morgagni. 



* The ciliary canal, discovered by Fel. Fontana, (sur lc vinin de la vipire. 

 'ol. ii. tab. vii. fig. 8, 9, 10,) and afterwards described more accurately by 

 Vdolp. Murray, {nov. act. Upsaliens. vol. iii.) runs, in bisulcous animals, along 

 His thick edge. 



t Consult among others Brandis, Pathologic p. 253. 



