The Principles of Biology, Volume 1 (of 2)Spencer, Herbert
Science
The Principles of Biology, Volume 1 (of 2)
Spencer, Herbert
Biology
tissues they compose are separating, the cells are growing step by step
more unlike. Some become flat, some polyhedral, some cylindrical, some
prismatic, some spindle-shaped. These develop spiral thickenings in their
interiors; and those, reticulate thickenings. Here a number of cells unite
together to form a tube: and there they become almost solid by the internal
deposition of woody or other substance. Through such changes, too numerous
and involved to be here detailed, the originally uniform cells go on
diverging and rediverging until there are produced various forms that seem
to have very little in common.
The arm of a man makes its first appearance in as simple a way as does the
shoot of a plant. According to Bischoff, it buds-out from the side of the
embryo as a little tongue-shaped projection, presenting no differences of
parts; and it might serve for the rudiment of some one of the various other
organs that also arise as buds. Continuing to lengthen, it presently
becomes somewhat enlarged at its end; and is then described as a pedicle
bearing a flattened, round-edged lump. This lump is the representative of
the future hand, and the pedicle of the future arm. By and by, at the edges
of this flattened lump, there appear four clefts, dividing from each other
the buds of the future fingers; and the hand as a whole grows a little more
distinguishable from the arm. Up to this time the pedicle has remained one
continuous piece, but it now begins to show a bend at its centre, which
indicates the division into arm and forearm. The distinctions thus rudely
indicated gradually increase: the fingers elongate and become jointed, and
the proportions of all the parts, originally very unlike those of the
complete limb, slowly approximate to them. During its bud-like stage, the
rudimentary arm consists only of partially-differentiated tissues. By the
diverse changes these gradually undergo they are transformed into bones,
muscles, blood-vessels, and nerves. The extreme softness and delicacy of
these primary tissues, renders it difficult to trace the initial stages of
the differentiations. In consequence of the colour of their contents, the
blood-vessels are the first parts to become distinct. Afterwards the
cartilaginous parts, which are the bases of the future bones, become marked
out by the denser aggregation of their constituent cells, and by the
production between these of a hyaline substance which unites them into a
translucent mass. When first perceptible, the muscles are gelatinous, pale,
yellowish, transparent, and indistinguishable from their tendons. The
various other tissues of which the arm consists, beginning with very
faintly-marked differences, become day by day more definite in their
qualitative appearances. In like manner the units composing these tissues
severally assume increasingly-specific characters. The fibres of muscle, at
first made visible in the midst of their gelatinous matrix only by
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