Cytology of the normal ciliary ganglion

: In view of the increasing importance of tissue cytology in the diagnosis of different diseases the authors studied 12 ciliary ganglions of patients without eye disease who had died at ages ranging from seven months to 76 years. After preparation of the ganglions from the retrobulbar tissue, two different methods were used, i.e., the abklatsch and sedimentation methods. Only a small number of cells could be obtained by abklatsch preparation because the ganglion cells were difficult to separate. With sedimentation, however, excellent results were obtained relating to the morphology of the ganglion cells and their satellite cells. Three types of ganglion cells were distinguished, which differed in size and in their reaction to May-Grunwald-Giemsa staining.