The works of Francis Maitland Balfour, Volume 1 (of 4) : $b Separate memoirsBalfour, Francis M. (Francis Maitland)
Science
The works of Francis Maitland Balfour, Volume 1 (of 4) : $b Separate memoirs
Balfour, Francis M. (Francis Maitland)
Embryology; Zoology
This fact, especially when taken in connection with the formation of fresh
segments outside the germinal disc and with other facts which I shall
mention hereafter, is of great morphological interest as bearing upon the
nature and homologies of the food-yolk. It also throws light upon the
behaviour and mode of increase of the nuclei. All the nuclei, both those of
the segments and those of the yolk, have the peculiar structure I described
in the last stage.
In specimens of this stage I have been able to observe certain points which
have an important bearing upon the behaviour of the nucleus during
cell-division.
Three figures, illustrating the behaviour of the nucleus, as I have seen it
in sections of blastoderms hardened in chromic acid, are shewn in Pl. 6,
figs. 7_a_, 7_b_ and 7_c_.
In the place of the nucleus is to be seen a sharply defined figure
(Fig. 7_a_) stained in the same way as the nucleus or more deeply. It has
the shape of two cones placed base to base. From the apex of each cone
there diverge towards the base a series of excessively fine striæ. At the
junction between the two cones is an irregular linear series of small
deeply stained granules which form an apparent break between the two. The
line of this break is continued very indistinctly beyond the edge of the
figure on each side.
From the apex of each cone there diverge outwards into the protoplasm of
the cell a series of indistinct markings. They are rendered obscure by the
presence of yolk-spherules, which completely surround the body just
described, but which are not arranged with any reference to these markings.
These latter striæ, diverging from the apex of the cone, are more
distinctly seen when the apex points to the observer (Fig. 7_b_), than when
a side of the cone is in view.
The striæ diverging outwards from the apices of the cones must be carefully
distinguished from the striæ of the cones themselves. The cones are bodies
quite as distinctly differentiated from the protoplasm of the cell as
nuclei, while the striæ which diverge from their apices are merely
structures in the general protoplasm of the cell.
In some cells, which contain these bodies, no trace of a commencing line of
division is visible. In other cases (Fig. 7_c_), such a line of division
does appear and passes through the junction of the two cones. In one case
of this kind I fancied I could see (and have represented) a coloured
circular body in each cone. I do not feel any confidence that these two
bodies are constantly present; and even where visible they are very
indistinct.
Instead of an ordinary nucleus a very indistinctly marked vesicular body
sometimes appears in a segment; but whether it is to be looked on as a
nucleus not satisfactorily stained, or as a nucleus in the act of being
formed, I cannot decide.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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