If further proof in support of this view be wanted, it is given by the evidence of physiology, which shows that the fibres of the optic nerve are not different from other nerve-fibres of the central nervous system, but that they degenerate when separated from their nerve-cell, and that the nerve-cell of which the optic nerve-fibre is a process is the large ganglion-cell of the ganglionic layer of the retina. The origin of the ganglionic layer of the retina cannot therefore be separated from that of the optic nerve-fibres. If the one is outside the epithelial tube, so is the other, and what holds true of the ganglionic layer must hold good of the rest of the retinal ganglion and, from all that has been said, of the retina itself. We therefore come to the conclusion that the evidence is distinctly in favour of the view, that the retina and optic nerve in the true sense are structures which originally were outside a non-nervous tube, but, just like the central nervous system as a whole, have amalgamated so closely with the elements of this tube as to utilize them for supporting structures. One part of this non-nervous tube, its dorsal wall, like the corresponding part of the brain-tube, still retains its original character, and by the deposition of pigment has been pressed into the service of the eye to form the pigmented epithelial layer. We can, however, go further than this, for we know definitely in the case of the retina what the fate of the epithelial cells lining this tube has been. They have become the system of supporting structures known as Müllerian fibres. The epithelial layer of the primary optic vesicle can be traced into direct continuity with the lining epithelium of the brain cavity, as a single layer of epithelial cells in the core of the optic nerve, forming the optic stalk, which, in consequence of close contact, becomes the well-known axial layer of supporting cells. This epithelial layer of the optic stalk then expands to form the optic bulb, the outer or dorsal wall of which still remains as a single layer of epithelium and becomes the layer of pigment epithelium. This layer of epithelium becomes doubled on itself by the approximation of the inner or ventral wall of the optic cup to the outer or dorsal wall in consequence of the presence of the lens, and still remaining a single layer, forms the _pars ciliaris retinæ_; then suddenly, at the _ora {108}serrata_, the single epithelial layer vanishes, and the layers of the retina take its place. It has long been known, however, that even throughout the retina this single epithelial layer still continues, being known as the fibres of Müller. This is how the fact is described in the last edition of Foster's "Text-book of Physiology," p. 1308--