Developmental deformities of the crystalline lens / by E. Treacher Collins.

  • Collins, E. Treacher (Edward Treacher), 1862-1937.
Date:
[1908]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Developmental deformities of the crystalline lens / by E. Treacher Collins. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by UCL Library Services. The original may be consulted at UCL (University College London)

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    At the anterior pole of the lens is a mass of laminated tissue presenting the appearance of an anterior polar cataract in which the fibres has become less closely compressed than usual. The lens substance is composed of a network of hyaline material with empty spaces in it. In this case there is met with within the lens capsule an admixture of lens substance of epiblastic origin and atypically developed vitreous of mesoblastic origin. In the next case I shall refer to, the invasion of the lens substance by the mesoblastic tissue has been even more extensive than in the last. It was a congenitally malformed cystic eye in which there had apparently been a failure of involution of the primary into the secondary optic vesicle.* The lens showed extensive changes, its anterior capsule was thrown into numerous folds, and lining it were epithelial cells in some places many layers thick. No well developed lens fibres could be detected. There was a con- siderable gap in the posterior capsule through which atypically developed vitreous, containing blood vessels, extended forwards. The contents of the lens capsule had thus become a vascularized mass of cellular tissue, in which it was difacult to differentiate the mesoblastic and epiblastic elements; granules of calcareous material, staining deeply with logwood, were scattered about in it. , • 1 These cases with a congenital defect in the posterior capsule of the lens and with fibro-cellular atypical vitreous filling the gap or extending forwards into the lens substance, are not only of considerable pathological and embryological interest, but also of clinical importance ,. • In the first case I have mentioned, although clinically a grey reflex was seen at the back of the lens, the lens itself appeared clear Except for some cortical opacities, the same was true ot the second case. Microscopical examination of the lenses in both these cases, however, showed extensive changes, which could not be entirely accounted for by the hardening reagents. Both these eyes were removed very early in life, at 9 months and 10 weeks respectively. I think there can be little doubt that if they had been left some months longer the whole lens in each case would have become opaque. . I have recorded a caset in which presumably there was a similar condition behind the lens where such a change was observed to t^lcG olcLCG The case was that of a child, four years old when first seen, in whose right eye the mother first noticed a peculiar appearance three weeks after birth. On examination a greyish-white opacity, with a somewhat metallic lustre, was seen behind the lens ; in its centre was a small, dark, round, slightly depressed * Trans. Ophth. Soc. of the U.K., Vol. XXVI, p. i77- \Royal London Ophlhal. Hospital Reports, Vol. XIII, p. 365-