368 



THE LENS, BY PROFESSOR BABUCHIN. 



adjoining fibres, however, they are not very remote from each 

 other ; so that in meridianal sections of the lens they form a 

 more or less broad zone of varying curvation the so-called 

 Meyer's zone, which constitutes an immediate prolongation 

 of a regularly arranged series of epithelial nuclei (fig. 372 

 A and B. 



Eitter* discovered short nucleated fibres, or rather cells, in 

 the centre of the lens in the Frog, which he believes represent 

 the formative elements of the fibres of the lens. Sernoff found 

 similar cells, but in the Frog alone. If we take into considera- 

 tion that these cells are very resistant, that their surface is in 



Fig. 376, 



Fig. 376, Isolated fibres of the lens; J., from Man ; J3, from the 

 Fish ; a, central part ; b, extremities. 



general very rough, that nuclei are not found in their interior, 

 or if present are irregularly dentated, it will appear much more 

 probable that they are the remains of old embryo cells, which 

 have only attained a certain grade of development, than that 

 they are young formative cells, the formative material for the 

 fibres of the lens. 



The consistence of the fibres of the lens varies in accordance 

 with the layer in which they are found. The superficial fibres 

 are usually very soft and delicate, and easily break up in 



Archiv fur Ophthalmologie, Bandxii., Abtheil. i., p. 17. 



