468 THE SENSORIAL FUNCTIONS. 



The eye-lashes are curved in opposite directions, 

 so as not to interfere with each other when the 

 eye-lids are closed. Their utility in guarding 

 the eye against the entrance of various sub- 

 stances, such as hairs, dust, or perspiration, and 

 also in shading the eye from too strong im- 

 pressions of light, is sufficiently apparent. The 

 eye-lids, in closing, meet first at the outer 

 corner of the eye ; and their junction proceeds 

 along the line of their edges, towards the inner 

 angles, till the contact is complete: by this 

 means the tears are carried onwards in that 

 direction, and accumulated at the inner corner 

 of the eye ; an effect which is promoted by the 

 bevelling of the margins of the eye-lids, which, 

 when they meet, form a channel for the fluid to 

 pass in that manner. When they arrive at the 

 inner corner of the eye, the tears are conveyed 

 away by two slender ducts, the orifices of which, 

 called the puncta lacrymalia (p, p), are seen at 

 the inner corner of each eye-lid, and are sepa- 

 rated by a round projecting body (c), connected 

 with a fold of the conjunctiva, and termed the 

 lacrymal caruncle. The two ducts soon unite to 

 form one passage, which . opens into a sac (s), 

 situated at the upper part of the sides of the 

 nose, and terminating below (at n) in the cavity 

 of the nostrils, into which the tears are ulti- 

 mately conducted. When the secretion of the 

 tears is too abundant to be carried off by this 



