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 pointed out before that the mode of development of the Oviduct could only
be considered as a modification of a simple involution from the
pleuro-peritoneal cavity. Its development, both in the Birds and in the
Batrachians as an involution, still more conclusively proves the truth of
this view.
The explanation of its first appearing as a solid rod of cells which keeps
close to the epiblast is, I am inclined to think, the following. Since the
Oviduct had to grow a long way backwards from its primitive point of
involution, it was clearly advantageous for it not to bore its way through
the mesoblast of the intermediate cell mass, but to pass between this and
the epiblast. This modification having been adopted, was followed by the
knob forming the origin of the duct coming to be placed at the outside of
the intermediate cell mass rather than close to the pleuro-peritoneal
cavity, a change which necessitated the mode of development by an
involution being dropped and the solid mode of development substituted for
it, a lumen being only subsequently acquired.
In support of the modification in the development being due to this cause
is the fact that in Birds a similar modification has taken place with the
Wolffian duct. The Wolffian duct there arises differently from its mode of
development in all the lower vertebrates as a solid rod close to the
epiblast[17], instead of as an involution.
Footnote 17: If Romiti's observations (_Archives für Mikr.
Anatom._ Vol. IX. p. 200) are correct, then the ordinary view
of the Wolffian duct arising in Birds as a solid rod at the
outer corner of the protovertebræ will have to be abandoned.
If the above explanation about the Oviduct be correct, then it is clear
that similar causes have produced a similar modification in development
(only with a different organ) in Birds; while, at the same time, the
primitive mode of origin of the Oviduct (Müller's duct) has been retained
by them.
The Oviduct, then, may be considered as arising by an involution from the
pleuro-peritoneal cavity.
The Wolffian duct arises by a series of such involutions, all of which are
behind (nearer the tail) the involution to form the Oviduct.
The natural interpretation of these facts is that in the place of the
Oviduct and Wolffian body there were primitively a series of similar bodies
(probably corresponding in number with the vertebral segments), each
arising by an involution from the pleuro-peritoneal cavity; and that the
first of these subsequently became modified to carry eggs, while the rest
coalesced to form the Wolffian duct.
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