The Whence and the Whither of Man - A Brief History of His Origin and Development through Conformity to Environment; Being the Morse Lectures of 1895 by John Mason Tyler
page 60 of 331 (18%)
page 60 of 331 (18%)
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from which they have condensed, both nerves and centres;
differentiation has not gone so far as at the front of the body. Sense organs are still very rudimentary. Special cells of the skin have been modified into neuro-epithelial cells, having sensory hairs protruding from them and nerve-fibrils running from their bases. [Illustration: 6. CROSS-SECTION OF TURBELLARIAN. HATSCHEK, FROM JIJIMA. _e_, external skin; _rm_, lateral muscles; _la_ and _li_, longitudinal muscles; _mdv_, dorso-ventral muscles; _pa_, parenchyma; _h_, testicle; _ov_, oviduct; _dt_, yolk-gland; _n_, ventral nerve; _i_, gastro-vascular cavity.] In a very few turbellaria we find otolith vesicles. These are little sacks in the skin, lined with neuro-epithelial cells and having in the middle a little concretion of carbonate of lime hung on rather a stiffer hair, like a clapper in a bell. Such organs serve in higher animals as organs of hearing, for the sensory hairs are set in vibration by the sound-waves. It is quite as probable that they here serve as organs for feeling the slightest vibrations in the surrounding water, and thus giving warning of approaching food or danger. The animal has also eyes, and these may be very numerous. They are not able to form images of external objects, but only of perceiving light and the direction of its source. A little group of these eyes lies directly over the brain, near the front end of the body; the others are distributed around the front or nearly the whole margin of the body. The turbellaria, doubtless, have the sense of smell, although we can discover no special olfactory organ. This sense would seem to be as |
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