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
Thus is formed the lumen of the Oviduct. The duct still, at this age, ends
behind without having become attached to the cloaca, so that at this time
the Oviduct is a canal closed behind, but communicating in front by a large
opening with the pleuro-peritoneal cavity.
It has during this time been travelling downwards, and is now much nearer
the pleuro-peritoneal cavity than the epiblast.
It may be well to point out that the mode of development which I have
described is really not very different from an involution, and must, in
fact, be only looked upon as a modification of an involution. Many examples
from all classes in the animal kingdom could be selected to exemplify how
an involution may become simply a solid thickening. In the Osseous fish
nearly all the organs which are usually formed by an involution have
undergone this change in their mode of development. I shall attempt to give
reasons later on for the solid form having been acquired in this particular
case of the Oviduct.
At about the time when a lumen appears in the Oviduct the first traces of
the Wolffian duct become visible.
At intervals along the whole length, between the front and hind ends of the
Oviduct, involutions arise from the pleuro-peritoneal cavity (fig. 12_a_,
_pwd_) on the inside (nearer the middle line) of the Oviduct. The upper
ends of these numerous involutions unite together and form a string of
cells, at first solid, but very soon acquiring a lumen, and becoming a duct
which communicates (as it clearly must from its mode of formation), at
numerous points with the pleuro-peritoneal cavity. It is very probable that
there is one involution to each segment of the body between the front and
hind ends of the Oviduct. This duct is the Wolffian duct, which thus,
together with the Oviduct, is formed before the appearance of the external
gills.
For a considerable period the front end of the Oviduct does not undergo
important changes; the hind end, however, comes into connection with the
extreme end of the alimentary canal. The two Oviducts do not open together
into the cloaca, though, as my sections prove, their openings are very
close together. The whole Oviduct, as might be expected, shares in the
general growth, and its lumen becomes in both sexes very considerably
greater than it was before.
It is difficult to define the period at which I find these changes
accomplished without giving drawings of the whole embryo. The stage is one
considerably after the external gills have appeared, but before the period
at which the growth of the olfactory bulbs renders the head of an elongated
shape.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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