There are certain results connected with the amount of new material
which is produced during regeneration, that should be considered in
connection with the question of internal factors. It has been pointed
out that when one segment only is removed from the anterior end of the
earthworm only one new one returns; when two are cut off two come back,
and this holds good up to five segments. Beyond this, no matter how many
are removed, only five at most come back. The latter result seems to be
connected with the amount of material that is formed over the
cut-surface before differentiation begins. When only one or two segments
have been cut off, the new material that is formed is soon sufficient in
amount for the production of one or two new segments, but when three to
five are cut off somewhat more material is formed before differentiation
begins. When more than five are cut off the new material is at best only
sufficient to produce five new ones, and in some cases even a smaller
number is formed. This hypothesis assumes that there is a lower limit of
size for the formation of new segments below which a segment cannot
develop. The interpretation is fully in accordance with what we know to
be the case for small pieces of hydra and of other forms that, below a
certain minimal size, do not regenerate. The question as to how many
segments are formed out of the new part is determined, not only by the
amount of new material, but also by the number of segments to be
replaced, at least up to five segments. Beyond this limit we may think
of the maximum possible number of segments appearing in the new
material. That a relation of some sort obtains between the old and the
new parts, that may have an influence on the number of the new segments
which are formed, is shown by the fact that, when one, two, three, four,
or five are cut off, just this number comes back. A sort of completing
principle exists as a factor in the result, but when so much has been
cut off that the old part cannot complete itself in the new material
that is formed, then other factors must determine how many segments will
be produced.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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