The author describes a distinct fibrous tunic, which he terms the
tunica vaginalis oculi
, continuous with the tarsal cartilages and ligaments in front, and extending backwards to the bottom, or apex of the orbit; thus completely insulating the globe of the eye, and keeping it apart from the muscles which move it. The eye-ball is connected with this fibrous investment by a cellular tissue, so lax and delicate as to permit an easy and gliding motion between them. The use which the author assigns to this tunic is that of protecting the eye-ball from the pressure of its muscles while they are in action. This tunic is perforated at its circumference, and a few lines posterior to its anterior margin, by six openings, through which the tendons of the muscles emerge in passing to their insertions, and over which, as over pullies, they play in their course. A consequence of this structure is that the recti muscles become capable of giving rotatory motions to the eye without occasioning its retraction within the orbit, and without exerting injurious pressure on that organ. In those animals which are provided with a proper retractor muscle, the recti muscles are, by means of this peculiar mechanism, enabled to act as antagonists to that muscle.
Hydrocele of the Tunica Vaginalis: Haematocele: Effusion of Serum into the Cellular Tissue of the Scrotum and Penis
