HISTOLOGY OF THE LENS. 



361 



lamellae, which, covering one another concentrically like the 

 coats of an onion, augment in size from the point of transition of 

 the epithelial cells into fibres towards the pole, then diminish in 

 the direction towards the nucleus of the lens, until they finally 

 attain their smallest dimensions at the centre of the lens or a 

 little posterior to it. It is here necessary to remark that the 

 fibres of the first more superficially situated layers, which form 



Fig. 372 B. 



Fig. 372s. A meridianal section through the border of the lens 

 of the Fowl, a, Epithelial cells ; 6, vertical or radial fibres ; c, their 

 transition into the meridianal ; d, meridianal fibres ; e, structureless 

 mass ; /, capsule. 



the equatorial portion of the lens, and are consequently situated 

 close to the point where the fibres pass into epithelial cells, are 

 curved inwards; that is to say, their convexity is turned 

 towards the axis of the lens, whilst their anterior extremities 

 are in contact with the epithelial layer, and their posterior 

 extremities touch the capsule. The fibres of these layers are 



