AQUEOUS

AQUEOUS, Aquosus, something that partakes of the Nature of Water, or abounds therein. See WATER. Thus, Milk is said to consist of an aqueous or serous, and a butyrous Part. See MILK. The Chemists separate the aqueous Part or Phlegm from all Bodies by Distillation. See DISTILLATION. Aqueous Humour, is the first or outermost of the three Humours of the Eye. See HUMOUR and EYE. It lies immediately under the Cornea, which it causes to protuberate a little; and is supposed to be furnished by certain Ducts provided for the purpose. See CORNEA. Anatomists are divided about the Origin and Conveyance of this Humour. It's certain, the Source must be pretty plentiful, inasmuch as, if by any Accident the Coats it is contained in be wounded, so that the Humour runs out, and the Cornea falls or collapses; the Wound readily heals, by only closing of the Eye, and the Humour recruits: of which we have numerous Instances among Physicians. Dr. Nuck thinks he has discovered the Ducts whereby the Humour is furnished. See AQUEOUS DUCTS. Others, denying the reality of those Ducts, suppose it immediately derived from the Arteries. Dr. Drake admits the Ducts, and takes them to be only Branches of the excretory Ducts of the Glandula Innominata, and Lacrimalis; which piercing the Tunics of the Eye, deliver their Liquor by ways hitherto unknown.



Aqueous Ducts, or Ductus Aquosi Nuckii, are certain Ducts, discovered by Dr. Nuck, whereby the aqueous Humour is supposed to be conveyed into the inside of the Membranes which enclose that Liquor.—But the Discovery is not universally allowed. See AQUEOUS HUMOUR.

AQUEOUS