The Retina

The retina or nervous tunic of the eyeball is a delicate membrane which extends from the entrance of the optic nerve to the margin of the pupil. It consists of three parts. The large posterior part, which alone contains the nervous elements, including the special neuro-epithelium and the optic nerve-fibers, is termed the pars optica retinæ. It extends forward to the ciliary body, where it terminates at an irregular line called the ora serrata. Here the retina rapidly loses its nervous elements, becomes much thinner, and is continued over the ciliary body and the posterior surface of the iris by two layers of epithelial cells. In the pars ciliaris retinæ the inner stratum is non-pigmented, while the outer layer is a direct continuation of the stratum pigmenti of the pars optica. In the pars iridica retinæ both are pigmented. In the dead subject the pars optica is an opaque, gray, soft membrane which can be stripped of the chorioid, leaving most of its outer pigmented layer on the latter. During life it is transparent, except as to its pigmented epithelium, and the reddish appearance of the fundus as viewed by the ophthalmoscope is caused by the blood in the network of the choriocapillaris. The entrance of the optic nerve forms a sharply defined, oval, light area, the optic papilla (Papilla nervi optici), situated about 15 mm. below the horizontal meridian and 3 to 4 mm. external to the vertical meridian. The central part of the papilla is slightly depressed (Excavatio papillæ n. optici).

The transverse diameter of the papilla is about 6 to 7 mm., and the vertical about 4 to 5 mm. It is commonly situated a little below the margin of the tapetum, but the latter may extend down somewhat on either side of the papilla. The lower margin is often indented a little. In inspection of the fundus with the ophthalmoscope numerous fine branches of the arteria centralis retinæ are seen radiating from the periphery of the papilla.

The optic nerve-fibers converge from all parts of the pars optica to the papilla, where they collect into bundles which traverse the lamina cribrosa of the chorioidea and sclera, and constitute the optic nerve. The area centralis retinæ is a round spot, 2 to 3 mm. in diameter, situated above and external to the optic papilla; it corresponds to the macula lutea of man, which is histologically more highly differentiated than the rest of the retina and is the area of most acute vision.

The structure of the retina is very complex. It consists of nervous elements which are supported in a peculiar sustentacular tissue, and are covered externally by a layer of pigmented epithelium (Stratum pigmenti retinæ). The nervous elements comprise a highly specialized neuro-epithelium, the rods and cones; ganglion cells, the axones of which form the optic nerve; and intermediate neurones. Ten layers may be recognized in sections microscopically.

The arteries of the retina are derived from the arteria centralis retinæ and anastomotic branches from the short ciliary arteries. The arteria centralis enters the optic nerve a short distance behind the eyeball and runs in the axis of the nerve. The artery divides 2 to 3 mm. before reaching the papilla, and gives off thirty to forty branches which radiate in the posterior part of the retina and divide dichotomously into end-arteries. The anterior part of the retina is non-vascular. The veins accompany the arteries except in the capillary plexuses; their walls consist merely of a layer of endothelial cells, around which are a lymph-channel and sheath.