HISTOLOGIC CHANGES IN THE LENS PRODUCED BY GALACTOSE

Abstract

In the course of a study of galactose cataract in rats by one of us,¹chiefly from a biochemical standpoint, it seemed advisable to correlate the change in the lens seen with the ophthalmoscope and focal illumination with the histologic changes in the same lenses or with those in the lenses of animals with similar stages of opacity. In the study of galactose cataract white rats were employed which had been placed on a diet of which galactose composed 50 per cent. All essential food factors, including vitamins, were supplied. Lenses were removed one, three, four, six, seven, nine, fourteen, fifteen, eighteen, twenty-five and thirty-two days after feeding was begun. There were also two lenses of animals which had been placed on a normal diet after opacities had developed, to illustrate the apparent clearing of opacities which was observed in vivo. This series included lenses in which no signs