Anat. [mod.L.; short for membrāna conjunctiva ‘conjunctive membrane’: see CONJUNCTIVE.] The mucous membrane that lines the inner surface of the eye-lids and is reflected over the front of the eye-ball, thus conjoining this with the lids.
1543. Traheron, Vigo’s Chirurg. (1586), 435. Conjunctiva the seaventh skinne of the eie.
1622. R. Banister, Dis. Eyes, iv. Opthalmia is an inflammation of the membrane in the eye named conjunctiva.
1772. Priestley, Hist. Vision, etc., II. 795. The sclerotes, conjunctiva and eyelids … retain their sensibility.
1880. Günther, Fishes, 113. It is crossed by a dark horizontal stripe of the conjunctiva.
