The works of Francis Maitland Balfour, Volume 1 (of 4) : $b Separate memoirs — John Shaqi
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
In all the embryos between the eighteenth and twenty-third hour which I
have examined for the purpose, I have found that at about two-thirds of the
distance from the anterior end of the pellucid area, and just external to
the side fold, there is a small space on each side in which the cells are
considerably larger than anywhere else in the hypoblast. These larger
cells, moreover, contain a greater number of highly refractive spherules
than any other cells. It is not easy to understand why growth should have
been less rapid here than elsewhere, as the position does not seem to
correspond to any feature in the embryo. In some specimens the hypoblast
cells at the extreme edge of the pellucid area are smaller than the cells
immediately internal to them. At about the twenty-third hour these cells
begin rapidly to lose the refractive spherules they contained in the
earlier stages of incubation, and come to consist of a nucleus surrounded
simply by granular protoplasm.
At about this period of incubation the formative cells are especially
numerous at the periphery of the blastoderm, and, no doubt, become
converted into the mass of mesoblast which is found at about the
twenty-fifth hour in the region of the vascular area. Some of them are
lobate, and appear as if they were undergoing division. At this time also
the greatest number of formative cells are to be found at the bottom of the
now large segmentation cavity.
In embryos of from thirty to forty hours the cells of the hypoblast have,
over the central portion of the pellucid area, entirely lost their highly
refractive spherules, and in the fresh state are composed of the most
transparent protoplasm. When treated with reagents they are found to
contain an oval nucleus with one or sometimes two nucleoli, imbedded in a
considerable mass of protoplasm. The protoplasm appears slightly granular
and generally contains one or two small vacuoles. I have already spoken of
the gradation of the hypoblast at the edge of the blastoderm into white
yolk. I have, therefore, only to mention the variations in the size of its
cells in different parts of the pellucid area. The points where the cells
are smallest seem generally to coincide with the points of maximum growth.
Over the embryo the cells are more regular than elsewhere. They are
elongated and arranged transversely to the long axis of the embryo. They
are somewhat hexagonal in shape, and not unlike the longer pieces in the
dental plate of a Myliobatis (Pl. 1, fig. 10). This regularity, however, is
much more marked in some specimens than in others. These cells are about
1/4000th of an inch in breadth, and 1/1000th in length. On each side of the
embryo immediately external to the protovertebræ the cells are frequently
about the same size as those over the embryo itself. In the neck, however,
and near the end of the sinus rhomboidalis, they are considerably smaller,
about 1/4000th inch each way. The reason of this small size is not very
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