[L. fundus bottom.]
1. Anat. The base or bottom of an organ; the part remote from the external aperture. Fundus of the eye: ‘the back part of the globe of the eye behind the crystalline lens’ (Syd. Soc. Lex., 1885).
1754–64. Smellie, Midwif., I. 96. The Uterus … is divided into neck and Fundus.
1804. Med. Jrnl., XII. 236. The uterus was united with the fundus of the bladder, and projected very little above it.
1840. G. V. Ellis, Anat., 608. The upper part or fundus is convex, and covered by peritonæum.
1871. Hammond, Dis. Nerv. Syst., p. xii. This process gives a very satisfactory view of the fundus with the optic disk and retinal vessels.
1877. Huxley, Anat. Inv. Anim., x. 604. In Phallusia monachus, the hinder end of the branchial sac is recurved, and the œsophageal opening looks backwards to the fundus of the sac, instead of forwrds to the mouth.
1887. G. T. Ladd, Physiol. Psychol., x. § 16. 549. Prolonged work with the microscope will cause the images seen in its focus to ‘live in the fundus of the eye.’
2. Foundation, groundwork. rare.–1
1840. De Quincey, Style, in Blackw. Mag., July, XLVIII. 1. Want of principle and want of moral sensibility compose the original fundus of southern manners.
