The Crayfish: An Introduction to the Study of Zoology.Huxley, Thomas Henry
Science
The Crayfish: An Introduction to the Study of Zoology.
Huxley, Thomas Henry
Crayfish; Zoology
In the language of morphology, such conformity in the plan of
organisation is termed _homology_. Hence, the several metameres in
question and their appendages, are _homologous_ with one another;
while the regions of the somites, and the parts of their appendages,
are also _homologues_.
When the comparison is extended to the sixth metamere, the homology
of the different parts with those of the other metameres, is
undeniable, notwithstanding the great differences which they present.
To recur to a previous comparison, the ground plan of the building
is the same, though the proportions are varied. So with regard to
the first and second metameres. In the second pair of appendages
of the male, the difference from the ordinary type of appendage is
comparable to that produced by adding a portico or a turret to the
building; while, in the first pair of appendages of the female, it is
as if one wing of the edifice were left unbuilt; {149} and, in those
of the male, as if all the rooms were run into one.
It is further to be remarked, that, just as of a row of houses
built upon the same plan, one may be arranged so as to serve as a
dwelling-house, another as a warehouse, and another as a lecture
hall, so the homologous appendages of the crayfish are made to
subserve various functions. And as the fitness of the dwelling-house,
the warehouse, and the lecture-hall for their several purposes would
not in the least help us to understand why they should all be built
upon the same general plan; so, the adaptation of the appendages
of the abdomen of the crayfish to the discharge of their several
functions does not explain why those parts are homologous. On the
contrary, it would seem simpler that each part should have been
constructed in such a manner as to perform its allotted function
in the best possible manner, without reference to the rest. The
proceedings of an architect, who insisted on constructing every
building in a town on the plan of a Gothic cathedral, would not be
explicable by considerations of fitness or convenience.
* * * * *
In the cephalothorax, the division into somites is not at first
obvious, for, as we have seen, the dorsal or tergal surface is
covered over by a continuous shield, distinguished into thoracic and
cephalic regions only by the cervical groove. Even here, however,
when a transverse section of the thorax is compared with that of the
{150} abdomen (figs. 15 and 36), it will be obvious that the tergal
and the sternal regions of the two answer to one another; while the
branchiostegites correspond with greatly developed pleura; and the
inner wall of the branchial chamber, which extends from the bases of
the appendages to the attachment of the branchiostegite, represents
an immensely enlarged epimeral region.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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