The crystalline lens is a transparent, biconvex structure in the eye that, along with the cornea, helps to refract light to be focused on the retina. The lens, by changing shape, functions to change the focal distance of the eye so that it can focus on objects at various distances, thus allowing a sharp real image of the object of interest to be formed on the retina. This adjustment of the lens is known as accommodation (see also Accommodation, below). It is similar to the focusing of a photographic camera via movement of its lenses. The lens is flatter on its anterior side.
The lens is also known as the aquula (Latin, a little stream, dim. of aqua, water) or crystalline lens. In humans, the refractive power of the lens in its natural environment is approximately 18 dioptres, roughly one-third of the eye’s total power.
The lens is part of the anterior segment of the eye. Anterior to the lens is the iris, which regulates the amount of light entering into the eye. The lens is suspended…