Histological significance of hemispherical bodies in the eye.

THE first reference in the literature to hemispherical bodies is that of von Hippel (1928) who, in describing the histological appearances of a glaucomatous eye, wrote: "hemispherical figures in Bowman's membrane are numerous, their significance unknown" (Fig. 1). Similar bodies were later observed by Wolff and Lyle (1937) in sections from an eye with old traumatic retinal detachment and secondary glaucoma. These structures were numerous and situated actually within the membrane immediately beneath the epithelium, where they appeared fairly homogeneous and more or less hemispherical; they varied in size up to 10 microns and their flattened bases were in contact with the epithelium. These workers concluded that hemisspherical bodies were hyaline in nature and probably derived from degenerative products of the corneal epithelium or perforating nerves; glaucoma probably played some part in their formation but their exact cause was still unknown.