38 
Structure of the 
t Monthly Microscopical 
Journal, July 1, 1869, 
of vital force in the humour, they are at once dispelled by the 
evidence of pathology. The vitreous body, or the tissue which it 
contains, is subject to inflammatory action ; it throws out and 
vitalizes inflammatory products into organized tissue, or matures 
them into pus ; if the tissue of the humour be broken up by the 
surgeon, or by accident, reaction comes on; and foreign bodies 
become encysted in lymph in the centre of the humour without 
obvious assistance from any vascular part of the eyeball. It is 
presumed, therefore, that these globules, or beads of plastic fluid, 
owe their formation to the anastomosing cellular tissue of the 
humour, accumulating around its fibres by its inherent vitality 
the albumen which the fluid of the humour contains, and elabora- 
ting it by prolonged contact into a compound of higher nutritive 
value ; and the obvious relation of these globules to the tissue of 
the humour, and their attraction for it during life, give them a 
special reference to the process of nutrition. Such a process has 
its prototype in the connective tissues of the body (from which the 
vitreous humour in the embryo is developed), by the serous fluid 
of the blood, itself unorganized, being converted into organized 
corpuscles simply by its passage through the meshes of these 
tissues. With regard to the reason why the plastic fluid, in attach- 
ing itself to the fibres of the humour, assumes the corpuscular or 
globular form rather than a smooth, continuous layer, I do not 
pretend to ofler any precise information at the present time, only 
that it is a common physical phenomenon in the operation of capil- 
lary force. 
But besides protecting and nourishing the structure of the 
humour, the pearly globules of its fibres are probably ultimately 
destined to serve a still more important end — viz. the nutrition of 
the crystalline lens. Almost two-thirds of the latter body is 
imbedded in the front of the vitreous humour, both structures 
lying in close contact. The cellular tissue of the vitreous humour 
converges towards, and is crowded behind, the crystalline body, to 
the posterior capsule of which it is adherent, and that so inti- 
mately, in the whole of its extent, that the two are never completely 
separable. The capsule of the lens is a highly transparent mem- 
brane, four or five times thicker in front than behind, and in the 
latter situation forms the only intervening substance between 
the lens itself and the structure of the vitreous humour. A thin 
section made in the direction of its thickness, and rendered partially 
opaque by dilute nitric acid, shows it to be channelled by many 
tortuous pores, which form indirect communication between its two 
surfaces. These pores are occupied by a transparent fluid having 
all the characters of the pearly globules of the vitreous tissue. 
Near the centre of the posterior capsule a close net-work of 
extremely minute capillary vessels exists in many of the lower 
