Fishes divided into Amphirhinæ and Monorhinæ.--Nasal tube of the
lamprey.--Its termination at the infundibulum.--The olfactory organs of
the scorpion group.--The camerostome.--Its formation as a tube.--Its
derivation from a pair of antennæ.--Its termination at the true
mouth.--Comparison with the olfactory tube of Ammocoetes.--Origin of the
nasal tube of Ammocoetes from the tube of the hypophysis.--Direct
comparison of the hypophysial tube with the olfactory tube of the
scorpion group--Summary.
In the last chapter I finished the evidence given by the consideration of
the mesosomatic or opisthotic nerves, and the segments they supplied. The
evidence is strongly in accordance with that of previous chapters, and not
only confirms the conclusion that vertebrates arose from some member of the
Palæostraca, but helps still further to delimit the nature of that member.
It is almost startling to see how the hypothesis put forward in the second
chapter, suggested by the consideration of the nature of the vertebrate
central nervous system and of the geological record, has received stronger
and stronger confirmation from the consideration of the vertebrate optic
apparatus, the vertebrate skeleton, the respiratory apparatus, and,
finally, the thyroid gland. All fit naturally into a harmonious whole, and
give a feeling of confidence that a similar harmony will be found upon
consideration of the rest of the vertebrate organs.
Following naturally upon the segments supplied by the opisthotic
(mesosomatic) cranial nerves, we ought to consider now the segments
supplied by the pro-otic (prosomatic) cranial nerves, i.e. the segments
belonging to the trigeminal nerve-group in the vertebrate, and in the
invertebrate the segments of the prosoma with their characteristic
appendages. There are, however, in all vertebrates in this foremost cranial
region, in addition to the optic nerves, two other well-marked nerves of
special sense, the olfactory and the auditory. Of these, the former are in
the same class as the optic nerves, for they arise {219}in the vertebrate
from the supra-infundibular nerve-mass, and in the invertebrate from the
supra-oesophageal ganglia. The latter arise in the vertebrate from the
infra-infundibular nerve-mass, and, as the name implies, are situated in
the region where the pro-otic nerves are contiguous to the opisthotic,
_i.e._ at the junction of the prosomatic and mesosomatic nerve-regions.
The chapter dealing with the evidence given by the olfactory nerves and the
olfactory apparatus ought logically to have followed immediately upon the
one dealing with the optic apparatus, seeing that both these special
sense-nerves belong to the supra-infundibular segments in the vertebrate
and to the supra-oesophageal in the invertebrate.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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