The Dublin Dissector, or Manual of Anatomy, by a Member of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland

This historic book may have numerous typos, missing text or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1831. Not illustrated. Excerpt: ... being enclosed in a fine membrane, it has a gelatinous consistence; this membrane is called hyaloid, it encloses the fluid, aud sends processes into it, so as to divide the whole mass into numerous cells, which communicate so freely that air injected will rapidly distend them; or if one or two openings be made in this capsule, the whole of the fluid will gradually escape; anteriorly the crystalline lens is connected to this humour by the hyaloid membrane separating into two laminae; external to the lens, the ciliary processes and the intervening pigment mark it in a striated manner, like the disk of a flower; this appearance, therefore, has been called the ciliary disk, or corona ciliaris: the vitreous humour serves to support and expand the retina, and the other tunics of the eye, also, in transmitting the rays of light from the lens, it prevents their too rapid convergence, and thus causes an image of larger size to be painted on the retina. section V. of the sk1V. The integument of the body is composed of one continued membrane, which is very dense, at the same time very extensible; at the several orifices, it is continuous with the mucous membranes, a vascular line alone marks the distinction between them: by maceration or putrefaction the skin may be divided into three lamina;, the cuticle, rete mucosum, and cutis vera. The cuticle or epidermis is the external layer of the skin, it is dry, thin, and transparent, and destitute of nerves and vessels, it is most intimately connected to the cutis by numerous fine hairs which pass through it, also by the several exhalant and absorbent vessels that open on its surface by very minute pores; in some situations it is very dense and opaque, as in the hands and feet; it is continued as a very fine pellicle into the d...