FIGURES 1.127 AND 1.128. Dorsal shield of the chick. (From Balfour.) The medullary furrow (me), which is not yet visible in Figure 1.130, encloses with its hinder end the fore end of the primitive groove (pr) in Figure 1.131.)
In the amniotes this original curved form of the neurenteric canal cannot be found at first, because here the primitive mouth travels completely over to the dorsal surface of the gastrula, and is converted into the longitudinal furrow we call the primitive groove. Hence the primitive groove (Figure 1.128 pr), examined from above, appears to be the straight continuation of the fore-lying and younger medullary furrow (me). The divergent hind legs of the latter embrace the anterior end of the former. Afterwards we have the complete closing of the primitive mouth, the dorsal swellings joining to form the medullary tube and growing over it. The neurenteric canal then leads directly, in the shape of a narrow arch-shaped tube (Figure 1.129 ne), from the medullary tube (sp) to the gastric tube (pag). Directly in front of it is the latter end of the chorda (cli).
While these important processes are taking place in the axial part of the dorsal shield, its external form also is changing. The oval form (Figure 1.117) becomes like the sole of a shoe or sandal, lyre-shaped or finger-biscuit shaped (Figure 1.130). The middle third does not grow in width as quickly as the posterior, and still less than the anterior third; thus the shape of the permanent body becomes somewhat narrow at the waist. At the same time, the oval form of the germinative area returns to a circular shape, and the inner pellucid area separates more clearly from the opaque outer area (Figure 1.131 a). The completion of the circle in the area marks the limit of the formation of blood-vessels in the mesoderm.
(FIGURE 1.129. Longitudinal section of the hinder end of a chick. (From Balfour.) sp medullary tube, connected with the terminal gut (pag) by the neurenteric canal (ne), ch chorda, pr neurenteric (or Hensen's) ganglion, al allantois, ep ectoderm, hy entoderm, so parietal layer, sp visceral layer, an anus-pit, am amnion.)
The characteristic sandal-shape of the dorsal shield, which is determined by the narrowness of the middle part, and which is compared to a violin, lyre, or shoe-sole, persists for a long time in all the amniotes. All mammals, birds, and reptiles have substantially the same construction at this stage, and even for a longer or shorter period after the division of the primitive segments into the coelom-folds has begun (Figure 1.132). The human embryonic shield assumes the sandal-form in the second week of development; towards the end of the week our sole-shaped embryo has a length of about one-twelfth of an inch (Figure 1.133).
The complete bilateral symmetry of the vertebrate body is very early indicated in the oval form of the embryonic shield (Figure 1.117) by the median primitive streak; in the sandal-form it is even more pronounced (Figures 1.131 to 1.135). In the lateral parts of the embryonic shield a darker central and a lighter peripheral zone become more obvious; the former is called the stem-zone (Figure 1.134 stz), and the latter the parietal zone (pz); from the first we get the dorsal and from the second the ventral half of the body-wall. The stem-zone of the amniote embryo would be called more appropriately the dorsal zone or dorsal shield; from it develops the whole of the dorsal half of the later body (or permanent body)—that is to say, the dorsal body (episoma). Again, it would be better to call the "parietal zone" the ventral zone or ventral shield; from it develop the ventral "lateral plates," which afterwards separate from the embryonic vesicle and form the ventral body (hyposoma)—that is to say, the ventral half of the permanent body, together with the body-cavity and the gastric canal that it encloses.
(FIGURE 1.130. Germinal area or germinal disk of the rabbit, with sole-shaped embryonic shield, magnified about ten times. The clear circular field (d) is the opaque area. The pellucid area (c) is lyre-shaped, like the embryonic shield itself (b). In its axis is seen the dorsal furrow or medullary furrow (a). (From Bischoff.))
The sole-shaped germinal shields of all the amniotes are still, at the stage of construction which Figure 1.134 illustrates in the rabbit and Figure 1.135 in the opossum, so like each other that we can either not distinguish them at all or only by means of quite subordinate peculiarities in the size of the various parts. Moreover, the human sandal-shaped embryo cannot at this stage be distinguished from those of other mammals, and it particularly resembles that of the rabbit. On the other hand, the outer form of these flat sandal-shaped embryos is very different from the corresponding form of the lower animals, especially the acrania (amphioxus). Nevertheless, the body is just the same in the essential features of its structure as that we find in the chordula of the latter (Figures 1.83 to 1.86), and in the embryonic forms which immediately develop from it. The striking external difference is here again due to the fact that in the palingenetic embryos of the amphioxus (Figures 1.83 and 1.84) and the amphibia (Figures 1.85 and 1.86) the gut-wall and body-wall form closed tubes from the first, whereas in the cenogenetic embryos of the amniotes they are forced to expand leaf-wise on the surface owing to the great extension of the food-yelk.
(FIGURE 1.131. Embryo of the opossum, sixty hours old, one-sixth of an inch in diameter. (From Selenka) b the globular embryonic vesicle, a the round germinative area, b limit of the ventral plates, r dorsal shield, v its fore part, u the first primitive segment, ch chorda, chr its fore-end, pr primitive groove (or mouth).
FIGURE 1.132. Sandal-shaped embryonic shield of a rabbit of eight days, with the fore part of the germinative area (ao opaque, ap pellucid area). (From Kolliker.) rf dorsal furrow, in the middle of the medullary plate, h, pr primitive groove (mouth), stz dorsal (stem) zone, pz ventral (parietal) zone. In the narrow middle part the first three primitive segments may be seen.)