If the relation of these cells to each other has been made sufficiently
clear, it will be understood that, in accordance with Schewiakoff’s
scheme of the structure, sections that cut the retinal cells transversely
give very different appearances at different levels. A section through
the very tops of the retinal cells, that is, the last section of the
retina before striking the vitreous body, would show large polygonal
areas of heavy pigment (the ends of the pigment cells), in between which
would lie the much smaller, less pigmented, highly refracting ends of the
visual cells (’89, Taf. II, Fig. 19). A section lower down in the retina,
that is, more toward the centre of the club, would strike the low-lying
enlarged central portion of the visual cells with their contained nuclei,
and the smaller, proximal ends of the pigment cells. It would, therefore,
give the reverse appearance from the preceding section, namely, that of
large unpigmented (or but slightly pigmented) areas (the swollen bodies
and nuclei of the spindle-shaped cells), and in between them smaller
pigmented areas, the ends of the proximally tapering pigment cells
(’89, Taf. II, Fig. 20). A section on the other side of the one first
described, that is, one of the first through the vitreous body, would
show pigment areas of the same size as the large ends of the pigment
cells (the cone-shaped streaks of pigment in the vitreous body which
according to Schewiakoff are associated with the pigment cell), and in
between them the cross-sections of the rod-like processes from the visual
cells, lying in canals in the clear homogeneous ground-substance of the
vitreous body (’89, Taf. II, Fig. 18).
Let me give a resumé of Schewiakoff’s conception of the structure of the
retina.
a. There is an alternation of pigment and visual cells, the nuclei of
the spindle-shaped visual cells lying at a lower level than those of the
cone-shaped pigment cells.
b. From the visual cells extend rod-like processes into the vitreous
body, lying in canals in the latter.
c. In the vitreous body a cone-shaped streak of pigment overlies each
pigment cell of the retina, which is not a part of that cell.
d. Apart from these pigment streaks and the rod-like processes of the
visual cells the vitreous body is structureless, probably a secretion of
the pigment cells.
My own work, now, has led me to a different conception, so that my
conclusions on the same points would be as follows:
a. There is not good evidence of an alternation of cone-shaped pigment
cells and spindle-shaped visual cells, with the nuclei of the latter at a
lower level than those of the former.
b. From some of the retinal cells otherwise not distinguished, there
extend rod-like processes into the vitreous body, such as described by
Schewiakoff.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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