The works of Francis Maitland Balfour, Volume 3 (of 4) : $b A treatise on comparative embryology: VertebrataBalfour, Francis M. (Francis Maitland)
Science
The works of Francis Maitland Balfour, Volume 3 (of 4) : $b A treatise on comparative embryology: Vertebrata
Balfour, Francis M. (Francis Maitland)
Embryology; Zoology
[FIG. 192. TRANSVERSE SECTION THROUGH THE CEPHALIC REGION OF A YOUNG
NEWT EMBRYO. (After Scott and Osborn.)
_In.hy._ invaginated hypoblast, the dorsal part of which will form
the notochord; _ep._ epiblast of neural plate; _sp._
splanchnopleure; _al._ alimentary tract; _yk._ and _Y.hy._
yolk-cells.]
In the case of the group of forms in which the epiblast is early
divided into nervous and epidermic layers, the former layer alone
becomes involuted in the formation of the auditory pit and the lens,
the external openings of which are never developed, while it is also
mainly concerned in the formation of the olfactory pit.
_Summary of the more important Organs derived from the three
germinal layers._
The epiblast primarily gives origin to two very important parts of the
body, viz. the central nervous system and the epidermis.
It is from the involuted epiblast of the neural tube that the whole of
the grey and white matter of the brain and spinal cord appears to be
developed, the simple columnar cells of the epiblast being directly
transformed into the characteristic multipolar nerve cells. The whole
of the sympathetic nervous system and the peripheral nervous elements
of the body, including both the spinal and the cranial nerves and
ganglia, are epiblastic in origin.
The epithelium (ciliated in the young animal) lining the canalis
centralis of the spinal cord, together with that lining the ventricles
of the brain, is the undifferentiated remnant of the primitive
epiblast.
The epiblast also forms the epidermis; not however the dermis, which
is of mesoblastic origin. The line of junction between the epiblast
and the mesoblast coincides with that between the epidermis and the
dermis. From the epiblast are formed all such tegumentary organs or
parts of organs as are epidermic in nature.
In addition to the above, the epiblast plays an important part in the
formation of the organs of special sense.
According to their mode of formation, these organs may be arranged
into two divisions. In the first come the organs where the sensory
expansion is derived from the involuted epiblast of the medullary
canal. To this class belongs the retina, including the pigment
epithelium of the choroid, which is formed from the original optic
vesicle budded out from the fore-brain.
To the second class belong the epithelial expansions of the membranous
labyrinth of the ear, and the cavity of the nose, which are formed by
an involution of the epiblast covering the external surface of the
embryo. These accordingly have no primary connection with the brain.
'Taste bulbs' and other terminal nervous organs, such as those of the
lateral line in fishes, are also structures formed from the external
epiblast.
In addition to these we have the crystalline lens formed of involuted
epiblast as well as the cavity of the mouth and anus, and the glands
derived from them. The pituitary body is also epiblastic in origin.
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