The Polarization Optics of the Isolated Cornea

IT has long been known that the cornea, like nmost biological tissues, changes polarized light passing through it, but the possibility that-these changes vary with the intra-ocular pressure (Stanworth, 1949) justifies a further examination of the subject.Previous Studies of the Isolated Cornea Brewster (1815) was the first to report that the cornea was anisotropic, but the first adequate study was that of Valentin (1861), who found that when the cornea was placed between a polarizer and crossed analyser a dark cross-shaped figure with peripheral concentric coloured bands was produced.A figure similar to this is also seen when convergent light is incident-on a uniaxial crystal plate cut perpendicular to the optic axis, i.e., perpendicular to the direction along which no double refraction