Structure of the Vitreous

Present-day conceptions of the structure of the vitreous are so conflicting and the conclusions in regard to the clinical significance of these conceptions are so diverse that the whole subject seems to be rather urgently in need of a thorough reinvestigation.¹There are many avenues by which the problem may be approached—physical, chemical or anatomic—and the complete restudy of all these aspects would be a formidable task. Our present study has had a somewhat less ambitious objective, for it has seemed to us that the hub of the problem lies in the question of the physical structure of the vitreous. What are the physical elements of the vitreous which account for its general physical or, more particularly, its material characteristics—its ability to maintain its form and to sustain elastic deformation, its turgor and also its complete loss of structure when its elastic limits have been overstressed