Text Book of Biology, Part 1: VertebrataWells, H. G. (Herbert George)
Science
Text Book of Biology, Part 1: Vertebrata
Wells, H. G. (Herbert George)
Biology -- Textbooks
Section 7. The method of examining cross-sections is an extremely
convenient one in the study of such a type as Amphioxus. The
student should very carefully go over and copy the six sections on
Sheet 20, comparing Figure 1 as he goes. He should do this before
reading what follows. One little matter must be borne in mind. These
figures are merely intended to convey the great structural ideas, and
they are considerably simplified; they must not be regarded as a
substitute for the examination of microscopic sections. [He will notice
a number of rounded masses from the body wall. The] -For instance,
the body-wall- muscles of Amphioxus are arranged in bundles bent
sharply in an arrow shape, the point forward. -A number of these
bundles are cut in any one section, and so the even shading of our
diagrams, if they professed to be anything more than diagrams,
should be broken up into masses.- These -bundles, we may mention-,
are called myomeres, and they are indicated in Figure 1 by lines
pointing acutely forward. [Several are consequently cut in any
transverse section (Sheet 20), and these are the rounded masses he
sees.] Similar myomeres, similarly situated, are found in fish, behind
the head, and, less obviously, they occur with diminishing importance
as the scale of the vertebrata is ascended.
Section 8. If we compare the nervous system of amphioxus with that
of any vertebrate, we find at once a number of striking differences. In
the first place, the skeletal covering of it, the cranium and the neural
arches of vertebrae, are represented only by a greatly simplified
connective tissue. In the next, a simple and slight anterior dilatation
alone represents the brain. A patch of black pigment anterior to this
(e.s.) may or may not be what its name implies an eye-spot. There is
a ciliated funnel, c.f. (Figure 1, Sheet 19), opening on the left side,
which has been assumed to be olfactory in its functions, and in the
mouth chamber a ciliated pit (c.p.), which may, or may not, be an
organ of taste. The ventral fissure of the spinal cord is absent. The
dorsal nerves are without ganglia, and do not come off in pairs, but
alternately, one to the left, then one to the right, one to the left, one
to the right, and so on. The ventral nerves are very short, more numerous
than the dorsal, and never unite with these latter to form mixed
nerves.
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