Figure 1. The effect of post mortem time in the eye on the water content of sheep lenses

Fresh enucleated sheep eyes were placed on ice and lenses were removed and weighed at various times, thereafter. The lenses were then fixed in 5% formaldehyde for 2 weeks before being dried at 80 °C until constant weight was attained. The decrease in weight was taken as the water content of the lens and expressed relative to the dry weight. Data for 10-15 lenses, removed consecutively in a 2 h period, were averaged and plotted against the average time left in the eye. The point at 1 h (X) was obtained by linear extrapolation of data from 414 and 660 day old sheep. The figure shows that the amount of water in a sheep lens, left in the eye, increases with increasing post mortem time.