The Evolution of Man, vol 2, Ernst Haeckel [online e reader txt] 📗

regularly-joined cells, full of granules of black colouring matter. This pigment membrane clothes, not only the inner surface of the choroid proper, but also the hind surface of its anterior muscular continuation, which covers the edge of the lens in front as a circular membrane, and arrests the rays of light at the sides. This is the well-known iris of the eye (h), coloured differently in different individuals (blue, grey, brown, etc.); it forms the anterior border of the choroid. The circular opening that is left in the middle is the pupil, through which the rays of light penetrate into the eye. At the point where the iris leaves the anterior border of the choroid proper the latter is very thick, and forms a delicate crown of folds (g), which surrounds the edge of the lens with about seventy large and many smaller rays (corona ciliaris.)

At a very early stage a couple of pear-shaped vesicles develop from the foremost part of the first cerebral vesicle in the embryo of man and the other Craniotes (Figures 1.155 a and 2.297 au). These growths are the primary optic vesicles. They are at first directed outwards and forwards, but presently grow downward, so that, after the complete separation of the five cerebral vesicles, they lie at the base of the intermediate brain. The inner cavities of these pear-shaped vesicles, which soon attain a considerable size, are openly connected with the ventricle of the intermediate brain by their hollow stems. They are covered externally by the epidermis.

(FIGURE 2.316. Face of a human embryo, eight weeks old (From Ecker.))

At the point where this comes into direct contact with the most curved part of the primary optic vesicle there is a thickening (l) and also a depression (o) of the horny plate (Figure 2.318, I). This pit, which we may call the lens-pit, is converted into a closed sac, the thick-walled lens-vesicle (2, l), the thick edges of the pit joining together above it. In the same way in which the medullary tube separates from the outer germinal layer, we now see this lens-sac sever itself entirely from the horny plate (h), its source of origin. The hollow of the sac is afterwards filled with the cells of its thick walls, and thus we get the solid crystalline lens. This is, therefore, a purely epidermic structure. Together with the lens the small underlying piece of corium-plate also separates from the skin.

As the lens separates from the corneous plate and grows inwards, it necessarily hollows out the contiguous primary optic vesicle (Figure 2.318, 1 to 3). This is done in just the same way as the invagination of the blastula, which gives rise to the gastrula in the amphioxus (Figure 2.38 C to F). In both cases the hollowing of the closed vesicle on one side goes so far that at last the inner, folded part touches the outer, not folded part, and the cavity disappears. As in the gastrula the first part is converted into the entoderm and the latter into the ectoderm, so in the invagination of the primary optic vesicle the retina (r) is formed from the first (inner) part, and the black pigment membrane (u) from the latter (outer, non-invaginated) part. The hollow stem of the primary optic vesicle is converted into the optic nerve. The lens (l), which has so important a part in this process, lies at first directly on the invaginated part, or the retina (r). But they soon separate, a new structure, the corpus vitreum (gl), growing between them. While the lenticular sac is being detached and is causing the invagination of the primary optic vesicle, another invagination is taking place from below; this proceeds from the superficial part of the skin-fibre layer—the corium of the head. Behind and under the lens a last-shaped process rises from the cutis-plate (Figure 2.319 g), hollows out the cup-shaped optic vesicle from below, and presses between the lens (l) and the retina (i). In this way the optic vesicle acquires the form of a hood.

(FIGURE 2.317. The human eye in section. a sclerotic coat, b cornea, c conjunctiva, d circular veins of the iris, e choroid coat, f ciliary muscle, g corona ciliaris, h iris, i optic nerve, k anterior border of the retina, l crystalline lens, m inner covering of the cornea (aqueous membrane), n pigment membrane, o retina, p Petit’s canal, q yellow spot of the retina. (From Helmholtz.))

Finally, a complete fibrous envelope, the fibrous capsule of the eyeball, is formed about the secondary optic vesicle and its stem (the secondary optic nerve). It originates from the part of the head-plates which immediately encloses the eye. This fibrous envelope takes the form of a closed round vesicle, surrounding the whole of the ball and pushing between the lens and the horny plate at its outer side. The round wall of the capsule soon divides into two different membranes by surface-cleavage. The inner membrane becomes the choroid or vascular coat, and in front the ciliary corona and iris. The outer membrane is converted into the white protective or sclerotic coat—in front, the transparent cornea. The eye is now formed in all its essential parts. The further development—the complicated differentiation and composition of the various parts—is a matter of detail.

(FIGURE 2.318. Eye of the chick embryo in longitudinal section (1. from an embryo sixty-five hours old; 2. from a somewhat older embryo; 3. from an embryo four days old). h horny plate, o lens-pit, l lens (in 1. still part of the epidermis, in 2. and 3. separated from it), x thickening of the horny plate at the point where the lens has severed itself, gl corpus vitreum, r retina, u pigment membrane. (From Remak.))

The chief point in this remarkable evolution of the eye is the circumstance that the optic nerve, the retina, and the pigment membrane originate really from a part of the brain—an outgrowth of the intermediate brain—while the lens, the chief refractive body, develops from the outer skin. From the skin—the horny plate—also arises the delicate conjunctiva, which afterwards covers the outer surface of the eyeball. The lachrymal glands are ramified growths from the conjunctiva (Figure 2.286). All these important parts of the eye are products of the outer germinal layer. The remaining parts—the corpus vitreum (with the vascular capsule of the lens), the choroid (with the iris), and the sclerotic (with the cornea)—are formed from the middle germinal layer.

The outer protection of the eye, the eyelids, are merely folds of the skin, which are formed in the third month of human embryonic life. In the fourth month the upper eye-lid reaches the lower, and the eye remains covered with them until birth. As a rule, they open wide shortly before birth (sometimes only after birth). Our craniote ancestors had a third eye-lid, the nictitating membrane, which was drawn over the eye from its inner angle. It is still found in many of the Selachii and Amniotes. In the apes and man it has degenerated, and there is now only a small relic of it at the inner corner of the eye, the semi-lunar fold, a useless rudimentary organ (Chapter 1.5). The apes and man have also lost the Harderian gland that opened under the nictitating membrane; we find this in the rest of the mammals, and the birds, reptiles, and amphibia.

The peculiar embryonic development of the vertebrate eye does not enable us to draw any definite conclusions as to its obscure phylogeny; it is clearly cenogenetic to a great extent, or obscured by the reduction and curtailment of its original features. It is probable that many of the earlier stages of its phylogeny have disappeared without leaving a trace. It can only be said positively that the peculiar ontogeny of the complicated optic apparatus in man follows just the same laws as in all the other Vertebrates. Their eye is a part of the fore brain, which has grown forward towards the skin, not an original cutaneous sense-organ, as in the Invertebrates.

(FIGURE 2.319. Horizontal transverse section of the eye of a human embryo, four weeks old (magnified one hundred times). (From Kolliker.) t lens (the dark wall of which is as thick as the diameter of the central cavity), g corpus vitreum (connected by a stem, g, with the corium), v vascular loop (pressing behind the lens inside the corpus vitreum by means of this stem g), i retina (inner thicker, invaginated layer of the primary optic vesicle), a pigment membrane (outer, thin, non-invaginated layer of same), h space between retina and pigment membrane (remainder of the cavity of the primary optic vesicle).

FIGURE 2.320. The human ear (left ear, seen from the front, natural size), a shell of ear, b external passage, c tympanum, d tympanic cavity, e Eustachian tube, f, g, h the three bones of the ear (f hammer, g anvil, h stirrup), i utricle, k the three semi-circular canals, l the sacculus, m cochlea, n auscultory nerve.)

The vertebrate ear resembles the eye and nose in many important respects, but is different in others, in its development. The auscultory organ in the fully-developed man is like that of the other mammals, and especially the apes, in the main features. As in them, it consists of two chief parts—an apparatus for conducting sound (external and middle ear) and an apparatus for the sensation of sound (internal ear). The external ear opens in the shell at the side of the head (Figure 2.320 a). From this point the external passage (b), about an inch in length, leads into the head. The inner end of it is closed by the tympanum, a vertical, but not quite upright, thin membrane of an oval shape (c). This tympanum separates the external passage from the tympanic cavity (d). This is a small cavity, filled with air, in the temporal bone; it is connected with the mouth by a special tube. This tube is rather longer, but much narrower, than the outer passage, leads inwards obliquely from the anterior wall of the tympanic cavity, and opens in the throat below, behind the nasal openings. It is called the Eustachian tube (e); it serves to equalise the pressure of the air within the tympanic cavity and the outer atmosphere that enters by the external passage. Both the Eustachian tube and the tympanic cavity are lined with a thin mucous coat, which is a direct continuation of the mucous lining of the throat. Inside the tympanic cavity there are three small bones which are known (from their shape) as the hammer, anvil, and stirrup (Figure 2.320, f, g, h). The hammer (f) is the outermost, next to the tympanum. The anvil (g) fits between the other two, above and inside the hammer. The stirrup (h) lies inside the anvil, and touches with its base the outer wall of the internal ear, or auscultory vesicle. All these parts of the external and middle ear belong to the apparatus for conducting sound. Their chief task is to convey the waves of sound through the thick wall of the head to the inner-lying auscultory vesicle. They are not found at all in the fishes. In these the waves of sound are conveyed directly by the wall of the head to the auscultory vesicle.

The internal apparatus for the sensation of sound, which receives the waves of sound from the conducting apparatus, consists in man and all other mammals of a closed auscultory vesicle filled with fluid and an auditory nerve, the ends of which expand over the wall of this vesicle. The vibrations of the sound-waves are conveyed by these media to the nerve-endings. In the labyrinthic water that fills the auscultory vesicle there are small stones at the points of entry of the acoustic nerves, which are composed of groups of microscopic calcareous crystals (otoliths). The auscultory organ of most of the Invertebrates has substantially the same composition. It usually consists of a closed