Volume 7

Descriptive catalogue of the pathological specimens contained in the museum of the Royal College of Surgeons of England.

  • Royal College of Surgeons of England. Museum.
Date:
1846-9
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    ^ .c^^i-t-<-<:f DESCRIPTIVE CATALOGJJE OF THE PATHOLOGICAL SPECIMENS CONTAINED IN /Vt iL T^^s THE MUSEUM o f ^, OF THE ROYAL COLLEGE OF SURGEONS ^ OF ENGLAND. SUPPLEMENT 11. ADDITIONAL SPECIMENS OF INJURIES AND DISEASES OF THE EYE. LONDON: PRINTED BY TAYLOR AXD ERAXCIS, RED LIOX COURT, FLEET STREET. 186L
    KSYAL COLLSGE OP PHYttOlANB
    PREFACE. This Volume contains the description of a series of preparations illustrating the results of Injuries and Diseases of the Eye, made during the years 1860-62, by Mr. Charles Bader, then one of the Assistants in the Museum ; by whom also the Catalogue has been drawn up. The specimens consist almost wholly of eyes which have been excised during the lifetime of the patient, in consequence of destructive morbid changes in the tissues of the globe, resulting in loss of vision. Except where othermse stated in the description, they are all preserved in pure glycerine. The sections for microscopic , examination were prepared according to the following method:— The portion of the eye reserved for sections is placed, as fresh as possible, in a solution of chromic acid, in which it is allowed to remain from three to six days, when the transparent parts will have become opaque and of a yellowish-white colour. Before making the sections, the retina is placed on a thin piece of black, the choroid on a similar piece of white cardboard, which is then fixed on a flat piece of cork with insect-pins. After the retina or choroid is properly fixed on the cork plate, those portions of tissue which might interfere while making the sections are cut off with a sharp scalpel. To make transverse sections of the optic nerve where it passes through the retinal aperture, the nerve, with a small por- tion of the adjoining tunics of the eye, is removed from the remainder of the eye- ball with sharp scissors, placed for six days in the solution of chromic acid, and then
    fixed with its nerve-fibres parallel to the surface of a piece of cardboard which is previously placed upon the cork. Care must be taken, in doing this, not to stretch the fibres of the nerve. In order to steady the movements of the razor, it is made to glide along a straight, strong darning-needle, which is held perpendicularly in the left hand, close to the part from which the sections are made. The mere weight of the razor completes the retina sections; a very slight drawing movement is re- quired when making sections of the optic nerve where it passes through the choroid and sclerotic. From three to five sections are made successively without altering the plane of the razor, by commencing with the part nearest the handle; the section thus obtained is allowed to adhere to the razor-plate, another section is then made with the nearest free portion of the blade, and so on : thus equal sections are obtained, and the structure of the part is better understood, by being able to compare adjoining portions. All sections obtained with one cut are generally placed upon one slide. The sections are then mounted in pm'e glycerine.