We come now to the consideration of the terminal knob of the clubs, the
sensory portion proper. A complete and detailed account of the complex
structure of these organs would fill many pages and involve much useless
repetition. Claus (’78) has described them with accuracy, but not in
great detail, and since then Schewiakoff (’89) has given a careful
general description and has supplemented Claus’s work by observations
upon the finer structure made with the aid of more recent technique. It
seems in place for me, therefore, to give in the briefest possible way a
general idea of their structure, and to pass then at once to the points
in which my work has led me to different conclusions from those of Claus
and Schewiakoff. In brief, then, the knob of the sensory club consists
of a thick, complex mass of nerve fibres, more or less imbedded in which
lie the special sensory organs, surrounding the ampulla-like terminal
enlargement of the canal. The surface between the special organs is
covered with less specialized sensory epithelium. The sensory organs are
seven in number. Of these, four are simple invaginations of the surface
epithelium arranged in two pairs symmetrically to the median line in the
proximal end of the knob (the end where the stalk enters) and having
pigment developed in the cells so invaginated, while the space of the
invagination is filled with a gelatinous refracting secretion. These
are considered simple eyes. Two more of the organs are complex eyes
situated on the median line of the inner surface of the knob, the upper
one smaller than the lower, but having almost exactly the same structure.
Each has a cellular lens over which extends a superficial, corneal layer
of cells; below the lens a refractive “vitreous body”; and below this
a retina with pigmented cells. The seventh organ is the crystalline
sac, which lies almost at the end of the knob opposite to the stalk and
contains a large concretion. In view of the fact that the sensory clubs
_in toto_ have been abundantly figured by Claus and Schewiakoff, it is
my intention to give but one simple figure of the general relations, and
I justify that one in that it was made from the fresh material. Fig.
57 is a camera sketch of the outlines given by a sensory club seen in
optical section from the side. The smaller upper and the larger lower
complex eyes which are situated on the mid-line, are seen in profile,
while the two small simple eyes give the outlines that they would in a
surface view of their side of the knob. Of course it is understood that
two similar ones would appear on the other side, since the four simple
eyes are symmetrically paired on either side of the mid-line. The sketch
seems to show at least this much, that even in the living state the lens
of the larger eye projects out beyond the other contours of the surface,
so that the marked convexity ascribed to it in descriptions is not to be
attributed to the preservation.
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