Crystalline formations in the vitreous have usually been described under the head of "synchysis scintillans" or "asteroid hyalitis." The former has been almost universally described as a fluid vitreous in which cholesterol crystals are suspended and reflect the light brilliantly when viewed with an ophthalmoscope; the latter was first described by Benson,1 in 1894, as creamy, starlike bodies occurring in a nonfluid vitreous. Since 1894, there have been numerous reports of this condition. A few writers have made differentiations between these conditions, but others either have made no differentiation or have used the terms interchangeably.
For the authors who take the stand that both these conditions are crystals suspended in the vitreous, the conditions are the same; if one analyzes earlier reports, one is led to believe that all crystalline bodies in the vitreous were classified as "synchysis scintillans" until Benson's report in 1894. Many writers since