MEMOIRS, 
I. — An Account of the Forainen centrale of the 
Retina, generally called the Foramen of 
Scemmering, as seen in the Eyes of certain 
Reptiles, 
By Robert Knox, M. D. M.W.S. Med. Ch. Soc. &c. 
{Read 15th November 1823.) 
When Dr ScEMMERiNG announced his discovery of a 
transparent point ov foramen in the human retina, nearly, 
or, as some say, precisely in the axis of vision, it excited 
very strongly the attention of anatomists, and of the philo- 
sophic world generally. It was indeed a singular circum- 
stance, that so remarkable, and so easily detected, an ap- 
pearance should have escaped the observation of the dis- 
tinguished anatomists who preceded Scemmering. The 
public attention having been much roused, numerous re- 
searches were immediately instituted by many Englisli and 
foreign Anatomists, with the view of determining whether 
this perforation, or transparent portion of the retina, was 
VOL. V. A 
