This tissue bears no resemblance whatever to any form of connective tissue,
either fatty or otherwise. By every test this tissue tells as plainly as
possible that it is a vestige of some former organ, presumably glandular,
which existed in that position; that it is not there as packing material
because the brain happened to be too small for its case, but that, on the
contrary, the brain is too small for its case, because the case, when it
was formed, included this organ as well as the brain; in other words, this
tissue {211}is there because it is the remnant of the great glandular mass
which so closely surrounds the brain and alimentary canal in animals such
as Limulus. In my paper in the _Quarterly Journal of Microscopical
Science_, in which I was comparing the tube of the vertebrate nervous
system with the alimentary canal of the invertebrate, I spoke of this
tissue as being the remnant of the invertebrate liver. At the same time the
whole point of my argument was that the glandular material surrounding the
brain of Limulus was made up of two glands--liver and generative gland--so
that this tissue might be the remnant of either one or the other, or both.
All I desired, at that time, was to point out the glandular appearance of
this so-called packing tissue, which surrounded the brain-region of
Ammocoetes, in connection with the fact that the brain and alimentary canal
of Limulus were closely surrounded with a glandular mass composed partly of
liver, partly of the generative gland. At present, I think these large
cells found round the brain in Ammocoetes are much more likely to be the
remnant of the generative gland than of the liver; the size of the cells
and their arrangement recalls Owen's picture of the generative gland in
Limulus, and seeing how important all generative glands are in their
capacity of internal secreting glands, apart entirely from the extrusion of
the ripe generative products, and how unimportant is an hepato-pancreas
when the alimentary canal is closed, it is much more likely that of the two
glands the former would persist longer than the latter. It may be that all
that is left of the old hepato-pancreas consists of the pigment so markedly
found in between these cells, especially at the place where the old
liver-duct reaches the surface of the brain; just as the only remnant of
the two pineal eyes in the higher vertebrates is the remains of the
pigment, known as brain-sand, which still exists in the pineal gland of
even the highest vertebrate. This, however, is a mere speculation of no
importance. What is important is the recognition of this tissue round the
brain as the remnant of the glandular mass round the brain of animals such
as Limulus. Still further confirmation of the truth of this comparison will
be given when the origin of the auditory organ comes up for discussion.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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