Alt — Glandular Structures Appertaining to the Human Eye. 187 



esting fact, I may say, that in the Negro 1 have found this 

 gland to be as a rule larger than in the Caucasian. I have 

 seen it often to be twice as large or even more (Figs. 2, 3). 



The orbital lacrymal gland forms a more or less compact 

 glandular body. It consists of a large number of lobules 

 united closely with each other by loose connective tissue in 

 which its ducts and numerous blood vessels lie. These con- 

 nective tissue trabeculae are united to its capsule. 



The gland is of the acinous type and its structure has been 

 correctly likened to that of the serous or salivary glands. 

 The round or oval final acini are situated around and 

 connected with small efferent ducts which, by their union in 

 the direction towards the conjunctiva, form larger and larger 

 excretory ducts. These acini consist of a membrana propria 

 and a lining of cylindrical, or rather, conical secretory epithe- 

 lial cells, with a large round or oval nucleus near their broader 

 base which are arranged in a circle around a central lumen. 



The secretion of this gland is carried to the conjunctival 

 sac by means of a varying number of these excretory ducts 

 which are lined with a cylindrical epithelium. The statement 

 is made by numerous authors, that there are from 6 to 12 

 such excretory ducts. It does not seem to me that there are 

 so many. I often found one of them, which also seemed to 

 be the longest, to be considerably wider than the others. 



These excretory ducts reach the conjunctiva of the fornix 

 by a somewhat bent and wavy course; their external orifices 

 lie in the temporal part of the conjunctival sac near the edge 

 of the tarsal tissue. 



Below the orbital lacrymal gland and separated from it by 

 its capsule, the levator palpebrae superioris muscle and 

 Mueller's non-striated muscle, and embedded in the loose 

 connective tissue of the eyelid on the temporal side of the 

 tarsus, lies the inferior or palpebral lacrymal gland (Figs. 

 1 to 5). 



This gland consists of a varying number of smaller and 

 larger lobules which are very much more loosely held too-ether 

 by the intervening connective tissue than those of the orbital 

 gland, and therefore do not form as compact a body. 



While this gland is usually thought to lie in the upper eye- 



