THE EYE. 



731 



same distance as the bloodvessels, and terminated in dilated clavate 

 ends, or in acuminate points, or two, three, or more together, formed 

 simple loops, from which in like manner other caeca! processes were 

 given off. Notwithstanding their capacity these vessels presented a 

 delicate, structureless coat, with scattered, appressed nuclei, and con- 

 tained a clear fluid, in which frequently a few, arid occasionally even a 

 good many clear spherical cells, exactly like lymph-corpuscles, were 

 visible. If I had found these vessels in other animals as well, I should 

 at once have declared them to be the commencements of the lymphatics 

 of the conjunctiva, but it appears to me, at present, more prudent to 

 regard this explanation perhaps as probable, but not as certain. For 



Fig. 297. 



although, in this one instance of the Cat, the vessels in question were 

 very manifest in both corneoe, so that I was able to point them out to 

 many of my colleagues, particularly to R. Virchow and H. Miiller, I 

 have since been unable to perceive any decided indication of pale vessels 

 of the same kind, either in the adult Cat or in the newly born Kitten, 

 or in the Dog, Ox, Sheep, Pig, and Rabbit. But it is now well known 

 that the commencements of lymphatics, for once when they are distinct 

 (in the intestinal mill for instance), escape the sight perhaps twenty or 

 thirty times. Nevertheless, in this case there seems to be every reason 

 for caution. Should the vessels in question not be lymphatics, they 

 might be regarded as pathological excavations, or as transformations of 

 earlier embryonic corneal vessels ; but the manifest limitary membrane 

 of the canals is opposed to the former supposition, and the latter is 

 upset by the circumstance that they occurred in the same plane with 

 true vessels, and did not enter into the least anastomosis with them. 



The nerves of the cornea discovered by Schlemm, are derived from 

 the nervuli ciliares, penetrate the sclerotic at its anterior border (in the 



Fm. 297. Capillaries and lymphatics (?) at the border of the cornea of a Kitten: a a, 

 trunks of the colorless vessels; 6, cnecal clavate extremity of one of these vessels; c, pointed 

 prolongation ; d, loops ; e, blood-capillaries. Magnified 250 diameters. 



