Turning now to the optic nerve, Balfour describes it as derived from the hollow stalk of the optic vesicle. He says--
"At first the optic nerve is equally continuous with both walls of the optic cup, as must of necessity be the case, since the interval which primarily exists between the two walls is continuous with the cavity of the stalk. When the cavity within the optic nerve vanishes, and the fibres of the optic nerve appear, all connection is ruptured between the outer wall of the optic cup and the optic nerve, and the optic nerve simply perforates the outer wall, and becomes continuous with the inner one."
In this description Balfour, because he derived the optic nerve fibres from the epithelial wall of the optic stalk, of necessity supposed that such fibres originally supplied both the outer and inner walls of the optic cup and, therefore, seeing that when the fibres of the optic nerve appear they do not supply the outer wall, he supposes that their original connection with the outer wall is ruptured, because a discontinuity of the epithelial lining takes place coincidently with the appearance of the optic nerve-fibres, and, according to him, the optic nerve simply perforates the outer wall and becomes continuous with the inner one. This last statement is very difficult to understand. I presume he meant that some of the fibres of the optic nerve supplied from the beginning the inner wall of the optic cup, but that others which originally supplied the outer wall were first ruptured, then perforated the outer wall, and finally completed the supply to the inner wall or retina.
This statement of Balfour's is the necessary consequence of his belief, that the epithelial cells of the optic stalk gave rise to the fibres of the optic nerve. If, instead of this, we follow Kölliker and His, who state that the optic nerve-fibres are formed outside the { 105}epithelial walls of the optic stalk, and that the cells of the latter form supporting structures for the nerve-fibres, then the position of the optic nerve becomes perfectly simple and satisfactory without any rupturing of its connection with the outer wall and subsequent perforation, for the optic nerve-fibres from their very first appearance pass directly to supply the retina--_i.e._ the inner wall of the optic cup and nothing else.