416 THE CORNEA, BY ALEXANDER ROLLETT. 



substance, and exhibits (as is shown in vertical sections pre- 

 pared at different times) that appearance which in boiled 

 sections of the cornea has been described as the expression of 

 the lamellar structure of the cornea; it ultimately splits up 

 very easily into leaves and leaflets. Lustrous striae, here and 

 there thickened, and in parts inclined towards one another, 

 are superimposed in many layers in the direction of the thick- 

 ness of the membrane.* When Schweigger-Seidel f states 

 that by the aid of acidulated alcohol he has succeeded in 

 bringing coincidently into view the transparent glass-like 

 scales of his corneal cells, as well as the lustrous granular 

 striated corpuscles (artificially made, Schweigger-Seidel) in 

 immediate contact with them, he is speaking of the flat middle 

 portion of the corneal corpuscles, surrounded by some still 

 adhering cement. A similar explanation must also be given 

 of the laminse, or scales, which may be isolated by driving 

 fluid injection into the cornea. 



In regard to the paths pursued by the migrating cells of the 

 cornea, we must, in accordance with the account above given, 

 explain that they are to be sought in the system of canals 

 filled by the soft protoplasmic plexus of the corneal corpuscles 

 (v. Recklinghausen). The presence of a fluid substance, uni- 

 formly distributed through the cornea in which the solid 



* In the above account we have limited ourselves to our own observa- 

 tions upon this substance. It is, however, partially at least, supported 

 by what Lightbody, unfortunately without specifying his mode of prepara- 

 tion, has stated in his paper " On the Anatomy of the Cornea of Verte- 

 brates," (Journal of Anatomy and Physiology, Vol. i., 1867, p. 16.) "The 

 fasciculi," he says, " are connected to each other by a gelatinous form of 

 connective tissue, which varies greatly in quantity and consistence in 

 different animals. In the Rabbit it is abundant and hard ; in the Rat it 

 is also abundant, but so soft, especially near the margin of the cornea, 

 that if the conjunctival epithelium be scraped off rather roughly it is 

 squeezed out of place, and presents much the same aspect as Bowman's 

 corneal tubes, which I believe are generally considered to be an artificial 

 separation of the bundles. This gelatinous substance is tinted by carmine, 

 though not so deeply as the corpuscles and their processes which lie 

 imbedded in it, yet more deeply than the tissue composing the bundles ; 

 this last is hardly stained at all, unless the solution of carmine is very 

 strong, and what it does absorb then is tolerably easy to wash out. " 



t Loc. cit., p. 323. 



