In fig. A the dorsal surface of the neural canal was as completely rounded off as the ventral surface; but in fig. B III this has ceased to be the case. The cells at the dorsal surface of the neural canal have become rounder and smaller and begun to proliferate, and the uniform outline of the neural canal has here become broken (fig. B III, pr). The peculiar membrane completely surrounding the canal in fig. A now terminates just below the point where the proliferation of cells is taking place.
The prominence of cells which springs in this way from the top of the neural canal is the commencing rudiment of a pair of spinal nerves. In fig. B II, a section anterior to fig. B III, this formation has advanced much further (fig. B II, pr). From the extreme top of the neural canal there have now grown out two club-shaped masses of cells, one on each side; they are perfectly continuous with the cells which form the extreme top of the neural canal, and necessarily also are in contact with each other dorsally. Each grows outwards in contact with the walls of the neural canal; but, except at the point where they take their origin, they are not continuous with its walls, and are perfectly well separated by a sharp line from them.
In fig. B I, though the club-shaped processes still retain their attachment to the summit of the neural canal, they have become much longer and more conspicuous.
Specimens hardened in both chromic acid (Pl. 22, fig. C) and picric acid give similar appearances as to the formation of these bodies.
In those hardened in osmic acid, though the mutual relations of the masses of cells are very clear, yet it is difficult to distinguish the outlines of the individual cells.
In the chromic acid specimens (fig. C) the cells of these rudiments appear rounded, and each of them contains a large nucleus.
I have been unable to prepare longitudinal sections of this stage, either horizontal or vertical, to shew satisfactorily the extreme summit of the spinal cord; but I would call attention to the fact that the cells forming the proximal portion of the outgrowth are seen in every transverse section at this stage, and therefore exist the whole way along, whereas the distal portion is seen only in every third or fourth section, according to the thickness of the sections. It may be concluded from this that there appears a continuous outgrowth from the spinal canal, from which discontinuous processes grow out.
In specimens of a very much later period (Pl. 23, fig. I) the proximal portions of the outgrowth are unquestionably continuous with each other, though their actual junctions with the spinal cord are very limited in extent. The fact of this continuity at a later period is strongly in favour of the view that the posterior branches of the spinal nerves arise from the first as a continuous outgrowth of the spinal cord, from which a series of distal processes take their origin. I have, however, failed to demonstrate this point absolutely. The processes, which we may call the nerve-rudiments, are, as appears from the later stages, equal in number to the muscle-plates.
It may be pointed out, as must have been gathered from the description above, that the nerve-rudiments have at this stage but one point of attachment to the spinal cord, and that this one corresponds with the dorsal or posterior root of the adult nerve.
The rudiments are, in fact, those of the posterior root only.