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
I must leave it an open question, and indeed one which can hardly be solved
from sections, whether these nuclei arise freely or increase by division,
but I am inclined to believe that both processes may possibly take place.
In any case their division does not appear to determine the segmentation or
segregation of the protoplasm around them.
As was mentioned in my account of the segmentation, these nuclei first
appear during that process, and become the nuclei of the freshly formed
segmentation spheres. At the close of segmentation a few of them are still
to be seen around the blastoderm, but they are not very numerous.
From this period they rapidly increase in number, up to the commencement of
the formation of the embryo as a body distinct from the germ. Though before
this period they probably become the nuclei of veritable cells which enter
the germ, it is not till this period, when the growth of the blastoderm
becomes very rapid and it commences to spread over the yolk, that these new
cells are formed in large numbers. I have many specimens of this age which
shew the formation of these new cells with great clearness. This is most
distinctly to be seen immediately below the embryo, where the
yolk-spherules are few in number. At the opposite end of the blastoderm I
believe that more of these cells are formed, but, owing to the presence of
numerous yolk-spherules, it is much more difficult to make certain of this.
As to the final destination of these cells, my observations are not yet
completed. Probably a large number of them are concerned in the formation
of the vascular system, but I will give reasons later on for believing that
some of them are concerned in the formation of the walls of the digestive
canal and of other parts.
I will conclude my account of these nuclei by briefly summarizing the
points I have arrived at in reference to them.
A portion, or more probably the whole, of the _yolk_ of the Dog-fish
consists of _organized material_, in which nuclei appear and increase
either by _division_ or by a process of _independent_ formation, and a
great number of these subsequently become the nuclei of cells formed around
them, frequently at a distance from the germ, which then travel up and
enter it.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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