CORNEAL FLUID METABOLISM

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Abstract
NORMAL water metabolism is one of the most important single factors in the transparency of the cornea. In recent years Cogan and Kinsey,1 in particular, have done a great deal of research in this field. This work culminated in their well-known hypothesis that the corneal stroma of the living eye is clear because it is in a state of deturgescence through osmosis, the epithelium and endothelium acting as semipermeable membranes. The aqueous is slightly hypertonic with respect to the blood, and the tears are assumed to be so also after evaporation and concentration on the corneal surface. The fluids would normally enter the cornea from the limbus and leave it through these two limiting membranes. If this normally present osmotic action is interfered with by destruction of either epithelium or endothelium, the corneal stroma will readily take up fluid, swell, and become cloudy. Since it was found that the

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