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FromThe Crayfish, by T. H. Huxley, 1879


Chapter IV
The Morphology of the Common Crayfish

--THE STRUCTURE AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE INDIVIDUAL.

IN the two preceding chapters the crayfish has been studied from the point of view of the physiologist, who, regarding an animal as a mechanism, endeavours to discover how it does that which it does. And, practically, this way of looking at the matter is the same as that of the teleologist. For, if all that we know concerning the purpose of a mechanism is derived from observation of the manner in which it acts, it is all one, whether we say that the properties and the connexions of its parts account for its actions, or that its structure is adapted to the performance of those actions.

Hence it necessarily follows that physiological phenomena can be expressed in the language of teleology. On the assumption that the preservation of the individual, and the continuance of the species, are the final causes of the organization of an animal, the existence of that organization is, in a certain sense, explained, when it is shown that it is fitted for the attainment of those ends; although, perhaps, the importance of demonstrating the proposition that a thing is fitted to do that which it does, is not very great.

But whatever may be the value of teleological explanations, there is a large series of facts, which have as yet been passed over, or touched only incidentally, of which they take no account. These constitute the subject matter of Morphology, which is related to physiology much as, in the not-living world, crystallography is related to the study of the chemical and physical properties of minerals.

Carbonate of lime, for example, is a definite compound of calcium, carbon, and oxygen, and it has a great variety of physical and chemical properties. But it may be studied under another aspect, as a substance capable of assuming crystalline forms, which, though extraordinarily various, may all be reduced to certain geometrical types. It is the business of the crystallographer to work out the relations of these forms; and, in so doing, he takes no note of the other properties of carbonate of lime.

In like manner, the morphologist directs his attention to the relations of form between different parts of the same animal, and between different animals; and these relations would be unchanged if animals were mere dead matter, devoid of all physiological properties--a kind of mineral capable of a peculiar mode of growth.

A familiar exemplification of the difference between teleology and morphology may be found in such works of human art as houses.

A house is certainly, to a great extent, an illustration of adaptation to purpose, and its structure is, to that extent, explicable by teleological reasonings. The roof and the walls are intended to keep out the weather; the foundation is meant to afford support and to exclude damp; one room is contrived for the purpose of a kitchen; another for that of a coal-cellar; a third for that of a dining-room; others are constructed to serve as sleeping rooms, and so on; doors, chimneys, windows, drains, are all more or less elaborate contrivances directed towards one end, the comfort and health of the dwellers in the house. What is sometimes called sanitary architecture, now-a-days, is based upon considerations of house teleology. But though all houses are, to begin with and essentially, means adapted to the ends of shelter and comfort, they may be, and too often are, dealt with from a point of view, in which adaptation to purpose is largely disregarded, and the chief attention of the architect is given to the form of the house. A house may be built in the Gothic, the Italian, or the Queen Anne style; and a house in any one of these styles of architecture may be just as convenient or inconvenient, just as well or as ill adapted to the wants of the resident therein, as any of the others. Yet the three are exceedingly different.

To apply all this to the crayfish. It is, in a sense, a house with a great variety of rooms and offices, in which the work of the indwelling life in feeding, breathing, moving, and reproducing itself, is done. But the same may be said of the crayfish's neighbours, the perch and the water-snail; and they do all these things neither better nor worse, in relation to the conditions of their existence, than the crayfish does. Yet the most cursory inspection is sufficient to show that the "styles of architecture" of the three are even more widely different than are those of the Gothic, Italian, and Queen Anne houses.

That which Architecture, as an art conversant with pure form, is to buildings, Morphology, as a science conversant with pure form, is to animals and plants. And we may now proceed to occupy ourselves exclusively with the morphological aspect of the crayfish.




As I have already mentioned, when dealing with the physiology of the crayfish, the entire body of the animal, when reduced to its simplest morphological expression, may be represented as a cylinder, closed at each end, except so far as it is perforated by the alimentary apertures (fig. 6); or we may say that it is a tube, inclosing another tube, the edges of the two being continuous at their extremities. The outer tube has a chitinous outer coat or cuticle, which is continued on to the inner face of the inner tube. Neglecting this for the present, the outermost part of the wall of the outer tube, which answers to the epidermis of the higher animals, and the innermost part of the wall of the inner tube, which is an epithelium, are formed by a layer of nucleated cells. A continuous layer of cells, therefore, is everywhere to be found on both the external and the internal free surfaces of the body. So far as these cells belong to the proper external wall of the body, they constitute the ectoderm, and so far as they belong to its proper internal wall, they compose the endoderm. Between these two layers of nucleated cells lie all the other parts of the body, composed of connective tissue, muscles, vessels, and nerves; and all these (with the exception of the ganglionic chain, which we shall see properly belongs to the ectoderm) may be regarded as a single thick stratum, which, as it lies between the ectoderm and the endoderm, is called the mesoderm.

If the intestine were closed posteriorly instead of opening by the vent, the crayfish would virtually be an elongated sac, with one opening, the mouth, affording an entrance into the alimentary cavity: and, round this cavity, the three layers just referred to--endoderm, mesoderm, and ectoderm--would be disposed concentrically.




We have seen that the body of the crayfish thus composed is obviously separable into three regions--the cephalon or head, the thorax, and the abdomen. The latter is at once distinguished by the size and the mobility of its segments: while the thoracic region is marked off from that of the head, outwardly, only by the cervical groove. But, when the carapace is removed, the lateral depression already mentioned, in which the scaphognathite lies, clearly indicates the natural boundary between the head and the thorax. It has further been observed that there are, in all, twenty pairs of appendages, the six hindermost of which are attached to the abdomen. If the other fourteen pairs are carefully removed, it will be found that the six anterior belong to the head, and the eight posterior to the thorax.

The abdominal region may now be studied in further detail. Each of its seven movable segments, except the telson, represents a sort of morphological unit, the repetition of which makes up the whole fabric of the body.

[Figure 36: Astacus fluviatilis--A transverse section through the nineteenth (fifth abdominal) somite]

If the abdomen is divided transversely between the fourth and fifth, and the fifth and sixth segments, the fifth will be isolated, and can be studied apart. It constitutes what is called a metamere; in which are distinguishable a central part termed the somite, and two appendages (fig. 36).

In the exoskeleton of the somites of the abdomen several regions have already been distinguished; and although they constitute one continuous whole, it will be convenient to speak of the sternum (fig. 36, st. XIX), the tergum (t. XIX), and, the pleura (p1. XIX), as if they were separate parts, and to distinguish that portion of the sternal region, which lies between the articulation of the appendage and the pleuron, on each side, as the epimeron (ep. XIX). Adopting this nomenclature, it may be said of the fifth somite of the abdomen, that it consists of a segment of the exoskeleton, divisible into tergum, pleura, epimera, and sternum, with which two appendages are articulated; that it contains a double ganglion (gn. 12), a section of the flexor (fm) and extensor (em) muscles, and of the alimentary (hg) and vascular (s.a.a, i.a.a) systems.

[Figure 37: Astacus fluviatilis--Appendages of the left side of the abdomen]

The appendage (fig. 36, 19), which is attached to an articular cavity situated between the sternum and the epimeron, is seen to consist of a stalk or stem, which is made up of a very short basaljoint, the coxopodite (fig. 37, D and E, cx.p), followed by a long cylindrical second joint, the basipodite (b.p), and receives the name of protopodite. At its free end, it bears two flattened narrow plates, of which one is attached to the inner side of the extremity of the protopodite, and is called the endopodite (en.p), while the other is fixed a little higher up to the outer side of that extremity, and is the exopodite (ex.p). The exopodite is shorter than the endopodite. The endopodite is broad and is undivided for about half its length, from the attached end; the other half is narrower, and is divided into a number of small segments, which, however, are not united by definite articulations, but are merely marked off from one another by slight constrictions of the exoskeleton. The exopodite has a similar structure, but its undivided portion is shorter and narrower. The edges of both the exopodite and the endopodite are fringed with long setæ.

In the female crayfish, the appendages of this and of the fourth and third somites are larger than in the male (compare D and E, (fig. 37).

The fourth and fifth somites, with their appendages, may be described in the same terms as the third, and in the sixth there is no difficulty in recognising the corresponding parts of the somite; but the appendages (fig. 37, F), which constitute the lateral portions of the caudal fin, at first sight appear very different. In their size, no less than in their appearance, they depart widely from the appendages of the preceding somites. Nevertheless, each will be found to consist of a basal stalk, answering to the protopodite (cx.p), which however is very broad and thick, and is not divided into two joints; and of two terminal oval plates, which represent the endopodite (en.p) and the exopodite (ex.p). The latter is divided by a transverse suture into two pieces; and the edge of the larger or basal moiety is beset with short spines, of which two, at the outer end of the series, are larger than the rest.

The second somite is longer than the first (fig. 1); it has very broad pleura, while those of the first somite are small and hidden by the overlapping front margins of the pleura of the second somite.

In the female, the appendages of the second somite of the abdomen are similar to those of the third, fourth, and fifth somites; but in those of the first somite (fig. 37, B), there is a considerable variation. Sometimes, in fact, the appendages of this somite are altogether wanting; sometimes one is present, and not the other; and sometimes both are found. But, when they exist, these appendages are always small; and the protopodite is followed by only one imperfectly jointed filament, which appears to represent the endopodite of the other appendages.

In the male, the appendages of the first and second somites of the abdomen are not only of relatively large size, but they are widely different from the rest, those of the first somite departing from the general type further than those of the second. In the latter (C, C') there is a protopodite (cx.p, bp) with the ordinary structure, and it is followed by an endopodite (en.p) and an exopodite (ex.p); but the former is singularly modified. The undivided basal part is large, and is produced on the inner side into a lamella (a), which extends slightly beyond the end of the terminal jointed portion (b). The inner half of this lamella is rolled upon itself, in such a manner as to give rise to a hollow cone, something like an extinguisher (C', a).

The appendage of the first somite (A) is an unjointed styliform body, which appears to represent the protopodite, together with the basal part and the inner prolongation of the endopodite of the preceding appendage. The terminal half of the appendage is really a broad plate, slightly bifid at the summit, but the sides of the plate are rolled in, in such a manner that the anterior half bends round and partially incloses the posterior half. They thus give rise to a canal, which is open at each end, and only partially closed behind.

These two pairs of curiously modified appendages are ordinarily turned forwards and applied against the sterna of the posterior part of the thorax, in the interval between the bases of the hinder thoracic limbs (see (fig. 3, A). They serve as conduits by which the spermatic matter of the male is conveyed from the openings of the ducts of the testes to its destination.

If we confine our attention to the third, fourth, and fifth metameres of the abdomen of the crayfish, it is obvious that the several somites and their appendages, and the various regions or parts into which they are divisible, correspond with one another, not only in form, but in their relations to the general plan of the whole abdomen. Or, in other words, a diagrammatic plan of one somite will serve for all the three somites, with insignificant variations in detail. The assertion that these somites are constructed upon the same plan, involves no more hypothesis than the statement of an architect, that three houses are built upon the same plan, though the façades and the internal decorations may differ more or less.

In the language of morphology, such conformity in the plan of organisation is termed homology. Hence, the several metameres in question and their appendages, are homologous with one another; while the regions of the somites, and the parts of their appendages, are also homologues.

When the comparison is extended to the sixth metamere, the homology of the different parts with those of the other metameres, is undeniable, notwithstanding the great differences which they present. To recur to a previous comparison, the ground plan of the building is the same, though the proportions are varied. So with regard to the first and second metameres. In the second pair of appendages of the male, the difference from the ordinary type of appendage is comparable to that produced by adding a portico or a turret to the building; while, in the first pair of appendages of the female, it is as if one wing of the edifice were left unbuilt; and, in those of the male, as if all the rooms were run into one.

It is further to be remarked, that, just as of a row of houses built upon the same plan, one maybe arranged so as to serve as a dwelling-house, another as a warehouse, and another as a lecture hall, so the homologous appendages of the crayfish are made to subserve various functions. And as the fitness of the dwelling-house, the warehouse, and the lecture-hall for their several purposes would not in the least help us to understand why they should all be built upon the same general plan; so, the adaptation of the appendages of the abdomen of the crayfish to the discharge of their several functions does not explain why those parts are homologous. On the contrary, it would seem simpler that each part should have been constructed in such a manner as to perform its allotted function in the best possible manner, without reference to the rest. The proceedings of an architect, who insisted on constructing every building in a town on the plan of a Gothic cathedral, would not be explicable by considerations of fitness or convenience.




In the cephalothorax, the division into somites is not at first obvious, for, as we have seen, the dorsal or tergal surface is covered over by a continuous shield, distinguished into thoracic and cephalic regions only by the cervical groove. Even here, however, when a transverse section of the thorax is compared with that of the abdomen (figs. 15 and 36), it will be obvious that the tergal and the sternal regions of the two answer to one another; while the branchiostegites correspond with greatly developed pleura; and the inner wall of the branchial chamber, which extends from the bases of the appendages to the attachment of the branchiostegite, represents an immensely enlarged epimeral region.

On examination of the sternal aspect of the cephalothorax the signs of division into somites become plain (figs. 3 and 39, A). Between the last two ambulatory limbs there is an easily recognisable sternum (XIV.), though it is considerably narrower than any of the sterna of the abdominal somites, and differs from them in shape.

The deep transverse fold which separates this hindermost thoracic sternum from the rest of the sternal wall of the cephalothorax, is continued upwards on the inner or epimeral wall of the branchial cavity; and thus the sternal and the epimeral portions of the posterior thoracic somite are naturally marked off from those of the more anterior somites.

[Figure 38: Astacus fluviatilis--The mode of connexion between the last thoracic and the first abdominal somites]

The epimeral region of this somite presents a very curious structure (fig. 38). Immediately above the articular cavities for the appendages there is a shield-shaped plate, the posterior, convex edge of which is sharp, prominent, and setose. Close to its upper boundary the plate exhibits a round perforation (plb.), to the margins of which the stem of the hindermost pleurobranchia (fig. 4, plb. 14) is attached; and in front of this, it is connected, by a narrow neck, with an elongated triangular piece, which takes a vertical direction, and lies in the fold which separates the posterior thoracic somite from the next in front. The base of this piece unites with the epimeron of the penultimate somite. Its apex is connected with the anterior end of the horizontal arm of an L-shaped calcified bar (fig. 38, a), the upper end of the vertical arm of which is firmly, but moveably, connected with the anterior and lateral edge of the tergum of the first abdominal somite (t. XV.). The tendon of one of the large extensor muscles of the abdomen is attached close to it.

The sternum and the shield-shaped epimeral plates constitute a solid, continuously calcified, ventral element of the skeleton, to which the posterior pair of legs is attached; and as this structure is united with the somites in front of and behind it only by soft cuticle, except where the shield-shaped plate is connected, by the intermediation of the triangular piece, with the epimeron which lies in front of it, it is freely movable backwards and forwards on the imperfect hinge thus constituted.

In the same way, the first somite of the abdomen, and, consequently, the abdomen as a whole, moves upon the hinges formed by the union of the L-shaped pieces with the triangular pieces.

In the rest of the thorax, the sternal and the epimeral regions of the several somites are all firmly united together. Nevertheless, shallow grooves answering to folds of the cuticle, which run from the intervals between the articular cavities for the limbs towards the tergal end of the inner wall of the branchial chamber, mark off the epimeral portions of as many somites as there are sterna, from one another.

A short distance above the articular cavities a transverse groove separates a nearly square area of the lower part of the epimeron from the rest. Towards the anterior and upper angle of this area, in the two somites which lie immediately in front of the hindermost, there is a small round aperture for the attachment of the rudimentary branchia. These areæ of the epimera, in fact, correspond with the shield-shaped plate of the hindermost somite. In the next most anterior somite (that which bears the first pair of ambulatory legs) there is only a small elevation in the place of the rudimentary branchia; and in the anterior four thoracic somites nothing of the kind is visible.

[Figure 39: Astacus fluviatilis--The cephalothoracic sterna and the endophragmal system]

On the sternal aspect of the thorax (figs. 3 and 39, A) a triangular space is interposed between the basal joints or coxopodites of the penultimate and the ante-penultimate pairs of ambulatory legs, while the coxopodites of the more anterior limbs are closely approximated. The triangular area in question is occupied by two sterna (fig. 39, A, XII, XIII), the lateral margins of which are raised into flange-like ridges. The next two sterna (X, XI) are longer, especially that which lies between the forceps (X), but they are very narrow; while the lateral processes are reduced to mere tubercles at the posterior ends of the sterna. Between the three pairs of maxillipedes, the sterna (VII, VIII, IX) are yet narrower, and become gradually shorter; but traces of the tubercles at their posterior ends are still discernible. The most anterior of these sternal rods passes into a transversely elongated plate, shaped like a broad arrow (V, VI), which is constituted by the conjoined sterna of the two posterior somites of the head.

Anteriorly to this, and between it and the posterior end of the elongated oral aperture, the sternal region is occupied only by soft or imperfectly calcified cuticle, which, on each side of the hinder part of the mouth, passes into one of the lobes of the metastoma (mt). At the base of each of these lobes there is a calcified plate, united by an oblique suture with another, which occupies the whole length of the lobe and gives it firmness. The soft narrow lip which constitutes the lateral boundary of the oral aperture, and lies between it and the mandible, passes, in front, into the posterior face of the labrum (lb).

[Figure 40: Astacus fluviatilis--The ophthalmic and antennulary somites]

In front of the mouth, the sternal region which appertains, in part, to the antennæ, and, in part, to the mandibles, is obvious as a broad plate (III), termed the epistoma. The middle third of the posterior edge of the epistoma gives rise to a thickened transverse ridge, with rounded ends, slightly excavated behind, and is then continued into the labrum (lb), which is strengthened by three pairs of calcifications, arranged in a longitudinal series. The sides of the front edge of the epistoma are excavated, and bound the articular cavities for the basal joints of the antennæ (3); but, in the middle line, the epistoma is continued forwards into a spear-head shaped process (figs. 39 and 40, II), to which the posterior end of the antennulary sternum contributes. The antennulary sternum is very narrow, and its anterior or upper end runs into a small but distinct conical median spine (fig. 40, t.). Upon this follows an uncalcified plate, bent into the form of a half cylinder (I), which lies between the inner ends of the eye-stalks and is united with adjacent parts only by flexible cuticle, so that it is freely movable. This represents the whole of the sternal region, and probably more, of the ophthalmic somite.

The sterna of fourteen somites are thus identifiable in the cephalothorax. The corresponding epimera are represented, in the thorax, by the thin inner walls of the branchial chamber; the pleura, by the branchiostegites; and the terga, by so much of the median region of the carapace as lies behind the cervical groove. That part of the carapace which is situated in front of this groove occupies the place of the terga of the head; while the low ridge, skirting the oral and præ-oral region, in which it terminates laterally, represents the pleura of the cephalic somites.

The epimera of the head are, for the most part, very narrow; but those of the antennulary somite are broad plates (fig. 40, epm.), which constitute the posterior wall of the orbits. I am inclined to think that a transverse ridge, which unites these under the base of the rostrum, represents the tergum of the antennulary somite, and that the rostrum itself belongs to the next or antennary somite. [note 1]

[Figure 41: Astacus fluviatilis--The rostrum, seen from the left side]

The sharp convex ventral edge of the rostrum (fig. 41) is produced into a single, or sometimes two divergent spines, which descend, in front of the ophthalmic somite, towards the conical tubercle mentioned above: it thus gives rise to an imperfect partition between the orbits.

[Figure 42: Astacus fluviatilis--A segment of the endophragmal system]

[Figure 43: Astacus fluviatilis--Longitudinal section of the anterior part of the cephalothorax]

The internal face of the sternal wall of the whole of the thorax and of the post-oral part of the head, presents a complicated arrangement of hard parts, which is known as the endophragmal system (figs. 39, B, 42, and 43), and which performs the office of an internal skeleton by affording attachment to muscles, and serving to protect important viscera, while at the same time it ties the somites together, and unites them into a solid whole. In reality, however, the curious pillars and bulkheads which enter into the composition of the endophragmal system are all mere infoldings of the cuticle, or apodemes; and, as such, they are shed along with the other cuticular structures during the process of ecdysis.

Without entering into unnecessary details, the general principle of the construction of the endophragmal skeleton may be stated as follows. Four apodemes are developed between every two somites, and as every apodeme is a fold of the cuticle, it follows that the anterior wall of each belongs to the somite in front, and the posterior wall to the somite behind. All four apodemes lie in the ventral half of the somite and form a single transverse series ; consequently there are two nearer the middle line, which are termed the endosternites, and two further off, which are the endopleurites. The former lie at the inner, and the latter at the outer ends of the partitions or arthrophragms (fig. 39, A, a, a', fig. 42, aph), between the articular cavities for the basal joints of the limbs, and they spring partly from the latter and partly from the sternum and the epimera respectively.

The endosternite (fig. 42, ens.) ascends vertically, with a slight inclination forwards, and its summit narrows and assumes the form of a pillar, with a flat, transversely elongated capital. The inner prolongation of the capital is called the mesophragm (mph.), the outer the paraphragm (pph.). The mesophragms of the two endosternites of a somite usually unite by a median suture, and thus form a complete arch over the sternal canal (s.c.), which lies between the endosternites.

The endopleurites (en p1.) are also vertical plates, but they are relatively shorter, and their inner angles give off two nearly horizontal processes, one of which passes obliquely forwards (fig. 39, B, h, (fig. 42, h.p.) and unites with the paraphragm of the endosternite of the somite in front, while the other, passing obliquely backwards (fig. 39, h'), becomes similarly connected with the endosternite of the somite behind.

The endopleurites of the last thoracic somite are rudimentary, and its endosternites are small. On the other hand, the mesophragmal processes of the endosternites of the two posterior somites of the head (fig. 39, B, c.ap), by which the endophragmal system terminates in front, are particularly strong and closely united together. They thus, with their endopleurites, form a solid partition between the stomach, which lies upon them, and the mass of coalesced anterior thoracic and posterior cephalic ganglia situated beneath them. Strong processes are given off from their anterior and outer angles, which curve round the tendons of the adductor muscles of the mandibles, and give attachment to the abductors.

In front of the mouth there is no such endophragmal system as that which lies behind it. But the anterior gastric muscles are attached to two flat calcified plates, which appear to lie in the interior of the head (though they are really situated in its upper and front wall) on each side of the base of the rostrum, and are called the procephalic processes (figs. 40, 43, p.cp). Each of these plates constitutes the posterior wall of a narrow cavity which opens externally into the roof of the orbit, and has been regarded (though, as it appears to me, without sufficient reason) as an olfactory organ. I am disposed to think, though I have not been able to obtain complete evidence of the fact, that the procephalic processes are the representatives of the "procephalic lobes" which terminate the anterior end of the body in the embryo crayfish. At any rate, they occupy the same position relatively to the eyes and to the carapace; and the hidden position of these processes, in the adult, appears to arise from the extension of the carapace at the base of the rostrum over the fore part of the originally free sternal surface of the head. It has thus covered over the procephalic processes, in which the sternal wall of the body terminated; and the cavities which lie in front of them are simply the interspaces left between the inferior or posterior wall of the prolongation of the carapace and the originally exposed external faces of these regions of the cephalic integument.




Fourteen somites having thus been distinguished in the cephalothorax, and six being obvious in the abdomen, it is clear that there is a somite for every pair of appendages. And, if we suppose the carapace divided into segments answering to these sterna, the whole body will be made up of twenty somites, each having a pair of appendages. As the carapace, however, is not actually divided into terga in correspondence with the sterna which it covers, all we can safely conclude from the anatomical facts is that it represents the tergal region of the somites, not that it is formed by the coalescence of primarily distinct terga. In the head, and in the greater part of the thorax, the somites are, as it were, run together, but the last thoracic somite is partly free and to a slight extent moveable, while the abdominal somites are all free, and moveably articulated together. At the anterior end of the body, and, apparently, from the antennary somite, the tergal region gives rise to the rostrum, which projects between and beyond the eyes. At the opposite extremity, the telson is a corresponding median outgrowth of the last somite, which has become moveably articulated therewith. The narrowing of the sternal moieties of the anterior thoracic somites, together with the sudden widening of the same parts in the posterior cephalic somites, gives rise to the lateral depression (fig. 39, cf) in which the scaphognathite lies. The limit thus indicated corresponds with that marked by the cervical groove upon the surface of the carapace, and separates the head from the thorax. The three pair of maxillipedes (7, 8, 9), the forceps (10), the ambulatory limbs (11-14), and the eight somites of which they are the appendages (VII-XIV), lie behind this boundary and belong to the thorax. The two pairs of maxillæ (5, 6) the mandibles (4), the antennæ (3), the antennules (2), the eyestalks (1), and the six somites to which they are attached (I-VI), lie in front of the boundary and compose the head.

Another important point to be noticed is that, in front of the mouth, the sternum of the antennary somite (fig. 43, III) is inclined at an angle of 60 or 70 degrees to the direction of the sterna behind the mouth. The sternum of the antennulary somite (II) is at right angles to the latter; and that of the eyes (I) looks upwards as well as forwards. Hence, the front of the head beneath the rostrum, though it looks forwards, or even upwards, is homologous with the sternal aspect of the other somites. It is for this reason that the feelers and the eyestalks take a direction so different from that of the other appendages. The change of aspect of the sternal surface in front of the mouth, thus effected, is what is termed the cephalic flexure.




Since the skeleton which invests the trunk of the crayfish is made up of a twenty-fold repetition of somites, homologous with those of the abdomen, we may expect to find that the appendages of the thorax and of the head, however unlike they may seem to be to those of the abdomen, are nevertheless reducible to the same fundamental plan.

The third maxillipede is one of the most complete of these appendages, and may be advantageously made the starting point of the study of the whole series.

[Figure 44: Astacus fluviatilis--The third or external maxillipede of the left side]

Neglecting details for the moment, it may be said that the appendage consists of a basal portion (fig. 44, cxp, bp), with two terminal divisions (ip to dp, and ex), which are directed forwards, below the mouth, and a third, lateral appendage (e, br), which runs up, beneath the carapace, into the branchial chamber. The latter is the gill, or podobranchia, attached to this limb, and it is something not represented in the abdominal limbs. But, with regard to the rest of the maxillipede, it is obvious that the basal portion (cxp, bp) represents the protopodite, and the two terminal divisions the endopodite and the exopodite respectively. It has been observed that, in the abdominal appendages, the extent to which segmentation occurs in homologous parts varies indefinitely; an endopodite, for example, may be a continuous plate, or may be subdivided into many joints. In the maxillipede, the basal portion is divided into two joints; and, as in the abdominal limb, the first, or that which articulates with the thorax, is termed the coxopodite (cxp), while the second is the basipodite (bp). The stout, leg-like endopodite appears to be the direct continuation of the basipodite; while the much more narrow and slender exopodite articulates with its outer side. The exopodite (ex) is by no means unlike one of the exopodites of the abdominal limbs, consisting as it does of an undivided base and a many-jointed terminal filament. The endopodite, on the contrary, is strong and massive, and is divided into five joints, named, from that nearest to the base onwards, ischiopodite (ip), meropodite (mp), carpopodite (cp), propodite (pp), and dactylopodite (dp).

[Figure 45: Astacus fluviatilis--The first and second maxillipedes of the left side]

The second maxillipede (fig. 45, B) has essentially the same composition as the first, but the exopodite (ex) is relatively larger, the endopodite (ip-dp) smaller and softer; and, while the ischiopodite (ip) is the longest joint in the third maxillipede, it is the meropodite (mp) which is longest in the second. In the first maxillipede (fig. 45, A) a great modification has taken place. The coxopodite (cxp) and the basipodite (bp) are broad thin plates with setose cutting edges, while the endopodite (en) is short and only two-jointed, and the undivided portion of the exopodite (ex) is very long. The place of the podobranchia is taken by a broad soft membranous plate entirely devoid of branchial filaments (ep). Thus, in the series of the thoracic limbs, on passing forwards from the third maxillipede, we find that though the plan of the appendages remains the same; (1) the protopodite increases in relative size; (2) the endopodite diminishes; (3) the exopodite increases; (4) the podobranchia finally takes the form of a broad membranous plate and loses its branchial filaments.

Writers on descriptive Zoology usually refer to the parts of the maxillipedes under different names from those which are employed here. The protopodite and the endopodite taken together are commonly called the stem of the maxillipede, while the exopodite is the palp, and the metamorphosed podobranchia, the real nature of which is not recognised, is termed the flagellum.

When the comparison of the maxillipedes with the abdominal members, however, had shown the fundamental uniformity of composition of the two, it became desirable to invent a nomenclature of the homologous parts which should he capable of a general application. The names of protopodite, endopodite, exopodite, which I have adopted as the equivalents of the "stem" and the "palp," were proposed by Milne-Edwards, who at the same time suggested epipodite for the "flagellum." And the lamellar process of the first maxillipede is now very generally termed an epipodite; while the podobranchiæ, which have exactly the same relations to the following limbs, are spoken of as if they were totally different structures, under the name of branchiæ or gills.

The flagellum or epipodite of the first maxillipede, however, is nothing but the slightly modified stem of a podobranchia, which has lost its branchial filaments; but the term "epipodite" may be conveniently used for podobranchiæ thus modified. Unfortunately, the same term is applied to certain lamelliform portions of the branchiæ of other crustacea, which answer to the laminæ of the crayfishes' branchiæ; and this ambiguity must be borne in mind, though it is of no great moment.

[Figure 46: Astacus fluviatilis--The second ambulatory leg of the left side]

On examining an appendage from that part of the thorax which lies behind the third maxillipede, say, for example, the sixth thoracic limb (the second walking leg) (fig. 46), the two joints of the protopodite and the five joints of the endopodite are at once identifiable, and so is the podobranchia; but the exopodite has vanished altogether. In the eighth, or last, thoracic limb, the podobranchia has also disappeared. The fifth and sixth limbs also differ from the seventh and eighth, in being chelate; that is to say, one angle of the distal end of the propodite is prolonged and forms the fixed leg of the pincer. The produced angle is that which is turned downwards when the limb is fully extended (fig. 46). In the forceps, the great chela is formed in just the same way; the only important difference lies in the fact that, as in the external maxillipede, the basipodite and the ischiopodite are immoveably united. Thus, the limbs of the thorax are all reducible to the same type as those of the abdomen, if we suppose that, in the posterior five pair, the exopodites are suppressed; and that, in all but the last, podobranchiæ are superadded.

[Figure 47: Astacus fluviatilis--Mandible, first and second maxillæ of the left side]

Turning to the appendages of the head, the second maxilla (fig. 47, C) presents a further modification of the disposition of the parts seen in the first maxillipede. The coxopodite (cxp) and the basipodite (bp) are still thinner and more lamellar, and are subdivided by deep fissures which extend from their inner edges. The endopodite (en) is very small and undivided. In the place of the exopodite and the epipodite there is only one great plate, the scaphognathite (sg) which either is such an epipodite as that of the first maxillipede with its anterior basal process much enlarged, or represents both the exopodite and the epipodite. In the first maxilla (B), the exopodite and the epipodite have disappeared, and the endopodite (en) is insignificant and unjointed. In the mandibles (A), the representative of the protopodite is strong and transversely elongated. Its broad inner or oral end presents a semicircular masticatory surface divided by a deep longitudinal groove into two toothed ridges. The one of these follows the convex anterior or inferior contour of the masticatory surface, projects far beyond the other, and is provided with a sharp serrated edge; the other (fig. 43, a) gives rise to the straight posterior or superior contour of the masticatory surface, and is more obtusely tuberculated. In front, the inner ridge is continued into a process by which the mandible articulates with the epistoma (fig. 47, A, ar). The endopodite is represented by the three-jointed palp (p), the terminal joint of which is oval and beset with numerous strong setæ, which are especially abundant along its anterior edge.

[Figure 48: Astacus fluviatilis--Eye-stalk, antennule, antenna of the left side]

In the antenna (fig. 48, C) the protopodite is two-jointed. The basal segment is small, and its ventral face presents the conical prominence on the posterior aspect of which is the aperture of the duct of the renal gland (gg). The terminal segment is larger and is subdivided by deep longitudinal folds, one upon the dorsal and one upon the ventral face, into two moieties which are more or less moveable upon one another. In front and externally it bears the broad flat squame (exp) of the antenna, as an exopodite. Internally, the long annulated "feeler" which represents the endopodite, is connected with it by two stout basal segments.

The antennule (fig. 48, B) has a three-jointed stem and two terminal annulated filaments, the outer of which is thicker and longer than the inner, and lies rather above as well as external to the latter. The peculiar form of the basal segment of the stem of the antennule has already been adverted to (p. 116). It is longer than the other two segments put together, and near the anterior end its sternal edge is produced into a single strong spine (a). The stem of the antennule answers to the protopodite of the other limbs, though its division into three joints is unusual; the two terminal annulated filaments represent the endopodite and the exopodite.

Finally, the eyestalk (A) has just the same structure as the protopodite of an abdominal limb, having a short basal and a long cylindrical terminal joint.




From this brief statement of the characters of the appendages, it is clear that, in whatever sense it is allowable to say that the appendages of the abdomen are constructed upon one plan, which is modified in execution by the excess of development of one part over another, or by the suppression of parts, or by the coalescence of one part with another, it is allowable to say that all the appendages are constructed on the same plan, and are modified on similar principles. Given a general type of appendage consisting of a protopodite, bearing a podobranchia, an endopodite and an exopodite, all the actual appendages are readily derivable from that type.

In addition, therefore, to their adaptation to the purposes which they subserve, the parts of the skeleton of the crayfish show a unity in diversity, such as, if the animal were a piece of human workmanship, would lead us to suppose that the artificer was under an obligation not merely to make a machine capable of doing certain kinds of work, but to subordinate the nature and arrangement of the mechanism to certain fixed architectural conditions.

The lesson thus taught by the skeletal organs is reiterated and enforced by the study of the nervous and the muscular systems. As the skeleton of the whole body is capable of resolution into the skeletons of twenty separate metameres, various]y modified and combined; so is the entire ganglionic chain resolvable into twenty pairs of ganglia various in size, distant in this region and approximated in that; and so is the muscular system of the trunk conceivable as the sum of twenty myotomes or segments of the muscular system appropriate to a metamere, variously modified according to the degree of mobility of the different regions of the organism. [see End note 14]




The building up of the body by the repetition and the modification of a few similar parts, which is so obvious from the study of the general form of the somites and of their appendages, is still more remarkably illustrated, if we pursue our investigations further, and trace out the more intimate structure of these parts. The tough, outer coat, which has been termed the cuticula, except so far as it presents different degrees of hardness, from the presence or absence of calcareous salts, is obviously everywhere of the same nature; and, by macerating a crayfish in caustic alkali, which destroys all its other components of the body, it will be readily enough seen that a continuation of the cuticular layer passes in at the mouth and the vent, and lines the alimentary canal; furthermore, that processes of the cuticle covering various parts of the trunk and limbs extend inwards, and afford surfaces of attachment to the muscles, as the apodemata and tendons. In technical language, the cuticular substance which thus enters so largely into the composition of the bodily fabric of the crayfish is called a tissue.

The flesh, or muscle, is another kind of tissue, which is readily enough distinguished from cuticular tissue by the naked eye; but, for a complete discrimination of all the different tissues, recourse must be had to the microscope, the application of which to the study of the ultimate optical characters of the morphological constituents of the body has given rise to that branch of morphology which is known as Histology.

If we count every formed element of the body, which is separable from the rest by definite characters, as a tissue, there are no more than eight kinds of such tissues in the crayfish; that is to say, every solid constituent of the body consists of one or more of the following eight histological groups:--

1. Blood corpuscles; 2. Epithelium; 8. Connective tissue; 4. Muscle; 5. Nerve; 6. Ova; 7. Spermatozoa; 8. Cuticle.

[Figure 49: Astacus fluviatilis--Corpuscles of the blood]

1. A drop of freshly-drawn blood of the crayfish contains multitudes of small particles, the blood corpuscles, which rarely exceed 1-700th, and usually are about 1-1000th, of an inch in diameter (fig. 49). They are sometimes pale and delicate, but generally more or less dark, from containing a number of minute strongly refracting granules, and they are ordinarily exceedingly irregular in form. If one of them is watched continuously for two or three minutes, its shape will be seen to undergo the constant but slow changes to which passing reference has already been made (p. 69). One or other of the irregular prolongations will be drawn in, and another thrown out elsewhere. The corpuscle, in fact, has an inherent contractility, like one of those low organisms, known as an Amoeba, whence its motions are frequently called amoebiform. In its interior, an ill-marked oval contour may be seen, indicating the presence of a spheroidal body, about 1-2000th of an inch in diameter, which is the nucleus of the corpuscle (n). The addition of some re-agents, such as dilute acetic acid, causes the corpuscles at once to assume a spherical shape, and renders the nucleus very conspicuous (fig. 49, 9 and 10). The blood corpuscle is, in fact, a simple nucleated cell, composed of a contractile protoplasmic mass, investing a nucleus it is suspended freely in the blood; and, though as much a part of the crayfish organism as any other of its histological elements, leads a quasi-independent existence in that fluid.

[Figure 50: Astacus fluviatilis--Epithelium, from the epidermic layer subjacent to the cuticle]

2. Under the general name of epithelium, may be included a form of tissue, which everywhere underlies the exoskeleton (where it corresponds with the epidermis of the higher animals), and the cuticular lining of the alimentary canal, extending thence into the hepatic cæca. It is further met with in the generative organs, and in the green gland. Where it forms the subcuticular layer of the integument and of the alimentary canal, it is found to consist of a protoplasmic substance (fig. 50), in which close set nuclei (n) are imbedded. If a number of blood corpuscles could be supposed to be closely aggregated together into a continuous sheet, they would give rise to such a structure as this; and there can be no doubt that it really is an aggregate of nucleated cells, though limits between the individual cells are rarely visible in the fresh state. In the liver, however, the cells grow, and become detached from one another in the wider and lower parts of the cæca, and their essential nature is thus obvious.

3. Immediately beneath the epithelial layer follows a tissue, disposed in bands or sheets, which extend to the subjacent parts, invest them, and connect one with another. Hence this is called connective tissue.

[Figure 51: Astacus fluviatilis--Connective tissue]

The connective tissue presents itself under three forms. In the first there is a transparent homogeneous-looking matrix, or ground substance, through which are scattered many nuclei. In fact, this form of connective tissue very closely resembles the epithelial tissue, except that the intervals between the nuclei are wider, and that the substance in which they are imbedded cannot be broken up into a separate cell-body for each nucleus. In the second form (fig. 51, A) the matrix exhibits fine wavy parallel lines, as if it were marked out into imperfect fibres. In this form, as in the next to be described, more or less spherical cavities, which contain a clear fluid, are excavated in the matrix; and the number of these is sometimes so great, that the matrix is proportionally very much reduced, and the structure acquires a close superficial similarity to that of the parenchyma of plants. This is still more the case with a third form, in which the matrix itself is marked off into elongated or rounded masses, each of which has a nucleus in its interior (fig. 51, B). Under one form or another, the connective tissue extends throughout the body, ensheathing the various organs, and forming the walls of the blood sinuses.

The third form is particularly abundant in the outer investment of the heart, the arteries, the alimentary canal, and the nervous centres. About the cerebral and anterior thoracic ganglia, and on the exterior of the heart, it usually contains more or less fatty matter. In these regions, many of the nuclei, in fact, are hidden by the accumulation round them of granules of various sizes, some of which arc composed of fat, while others consist of a proteinaceous material. These aggregates of granules are usually spheroidal; and, with the matrix in which they are imbedded and the nucleus which they surround, they are often readily detached when a portion of the connective tissue is teased out, and are then known as fat cells. From what has been said respecting the distribution of the connective tissue, it is obvious that if all the other tissues could be removed, this tissue would form a continuous whole, and represent a sort of model, or cast, of the whole body of the crayfish.

[Figure 52: Astacus fluviatilis--Muscular fibres, fibrillæ]

4. The muscular tissue of the crayfish always has the form of bands or fibres, of very various thickness, marked, when viewed by transmitted light, by alternate darker and lighter striæ, transversely to the axis of the fibres (fig. 52 A). The distance of the transverse striæ from one another varies with the condition of the muscle, from 1-4,000th of an inch in the quiescent state to as little as 1-30,000th of an inch in that of extreme contraction. The more delicate muscular fibres, like those of the heart and those of the intestine, are imbedded in the connective tissue of the organ, but have no special sheaths.

The fibres which make up the more conspicuous muscles of the trunk and limbs, on the other hand, are much larger, and are invested by a thin, transparent, structure-less sheath, which is termed the sarcolemma. Nuclei are scattered, at intervals, through the striated substance of the muscle; and, in the larger muscular fibres, a layer of nucleated protoplasm lies between the sarcolemma and the striated muscle substance.

This much is readily seen in a specimen of muscular fibre taken from any part of the body, and whether alive or dead. But the results of the ultimate optical analysis of these appearances, and the conclusions respecting the normal structure of striped muscle which may be legitimately drawn from them, have been the subjects of much controversy.

[Figure 53: Astacus fluviatilis--Living muscular fibres, fibrillæ]

Quiescent muscular fibres from the chela of the forceps of a crayfish, examined while still living, without the addition of any extraneous fluid, and with magnifying powers of not less than seven or eight hundred diameters, exhibit the following appearance. At intervals of about 1-4000th of an inch, very delicate but dark and well-defined transverse lines are visible; and these, on careful focussing, appear beaded, as if they were made of a series of close-set minute granules not more than 1-20,000th to 1-30,000th of an inch in diameter. These may be termed the septal lines (fig. 52, D and F, a; C, 1-5; fig. 53, s). On each side of every septal line there is a very narrow perfectly transparent band, which may be distinguished as the septal zone (fig. 53, sz). Upon this follows a relatively broad band of a substance which has a semi-transparent aspect, like very finely ground glass, and hence appears somewhat dark relatively to the septal zone. Upon this inter-septal zone (i s) follows another septal zone, then a septal line, another septal zone, an inter-septal zone, and so on throughout the whole length of the fibre.

In the perfectly unaltered state of the muscle no other transverse markings than these are discernible. But it is always possible to observe certain longitudinal markings; and these are of three kinds. In the first place, the nuclei which, in the perfectly fresh muscle, are delicate transparent oval bodies, are lodged in spaces which taper off at each end into narrow longitudinal clefts (fig. 52, A, B). Prolongations of the protoplasmic sheath of the fibre extend inwards and fill these clefts. Secondly, there are similar clefts interposed between these, but narrow and merely linear throughout. Sometimes these clefts contain fine granules. Thirdly, even in the perfectly fresh muscle, extremely faint parallel longitudinal striæ 1-7,000th of an inch, or thereabouts, apart, traverse the several zones, so that longer or shorter segments of the successive septal lines are inclosed between them. A transverse section of the muscle appears divided into rounded or polygonal areæ of the same diameter, separated from one another here and there by minute interstices. Moreover, on examination of perfectly fresh muscle with high magnifying powers, the septal lines are hardly ever straight for any distance, but are broken up into short lengths, which answer to one or more of the longitudinal divisions, and stand at slightly different heights.

The only conclusion to be drawn from these appearances seems to me to be that the substance of the muscle Is composed of distinct fibrils; and that the longitudinal striæ and the rounded areæ of the transverse section are simply the optical expressions of the boundaries of these fibrils. In the perfectly unaltered state of the tissue, however, the fibrils are so closely packed that their boundaries are scarcely discernible.

Thus each muscular fibre may be regarded as composed of larger and smaller bundles of fibrils imbedded in a nucleated protoplasmic framework which ensheaths the whole and is itself invested by the sarcolemma.

As the fibre dies, the nuclei acquire hard, dark contours and their contents become granular, while at the same time the fibrils acquire sharp and well-defined boundaries. In fact, the fibre may now be readily teased out with needles, and the fibrils isolated.

In muscle which has been treated with various reagents, such as alcohol, nitric acid, or solution of common salt, the fibrils themselves may be split up into filaments of extreme tenuity, each of which appears to answer to one of the granules of the septal lines. Such an isolated muscle filament looks like a very fine thread carrying minute beads at regular intervals.

The septal lines resist most reagents, and remain visible in muscular fibres which have been subjected to various modes of treatment; but they may have the appearance of continuous bars, or be more or less completely resolved into separate granules, according to circumstances. On the other hand, what is to be seen in the interspace between every two septal lines depends upon the reagent employed. With dilute acids and strong solutions of salt, the inter-septal substance swells up and becomes transparent, so that it ceases to be distinguishable from the septal zone. At the same time a distinct but faint transverse line may appear in the middle of its length. Strong nitric acid, on the contrary, renders the inter-septal substance more opaque, and the septal zones consequently appear very well defined.

In living and recently dead muscle, as well as in muscles which have been preserved in spirit or hardened with nitric acid, the inter-septal zones polarize light; and hence, in the dark field of the polarizing microscope, the fibre appears crossed by bright bands, which correspond with the inter-septal zones, or at any rate, with the middle parts of them. The substance which forms the septal zones, on the contrary, produces no such effect, and consequently remains dark; while the septal lines again have the same property as the inter-septal sub-stance, though in a less degree.

In fibres which have been acted upon by solution o[f] salt, or dilute acids, the inter-septal zones have lost their polarizing property. As we know that the reagents in question dissolve the peculiar constituent of muscle, myosin, it is to be concluded that the inter-septal substance is chiefly composed of myosin.

Thus a fibril may be considered to be made up of segments of different material arranged in regular order; S-sz-IS-sz-S-sz-IS-sz-S:. S representing the septal line; sz, the septal zone ; IS, the inter-septal zone. Of these, IS is the chief if not the only seat of the myosin; what the composition of sz and of S may be is uncertain, but the supposition, that, in the living muscle, sz is a mere fluid, appears to me to be wholly inadmissible.

When living muscle contracts, the inter-septal zones become shorter and wider and their margins darker, while the septal zones and the septal lines tend to become effaced--as it appears to me simply in consequence of the approximation of the lateral margins of the inter-septal zones. It is probable that the substance of the intermediate zone is the chief, if not the only, seat of the activity of the muscle during contraction.

[Figure 54: Astacus fluviatilis--One of the abdoiminal ganglia, nerve sheath, ganglionic corpuscle]

5. The elements of the nervous tissue are of two kinds, nerve-cells, and nerve fibres; the former are found in the ganglia, and they vary very much in size (fig. 54, B). Each ganglionic corpuscle consists of a cell body produced into one or more processes which sometimes, if not always, end in nerve fibres. A large, clear spherical nucleus is seen in the interior of the nerve-cell; and in the centre of this is a well defined, small round particle, the nucleolus. The corpuscle, when isolated, is often surrounded by a sort of sheath of small nucleated cells.

[Figure 55: Astacus fluviatilis--Three nerve fibres, with the connective tissue in which they are imbedded]

The nerve fibres (fig. 55) of the crayfish are remarkable for the large size which some of them attain. In the central nervous system a few reach as much as 1-200th of an inch in diameter; and fibres of 1-300th or 1-400th of an inch in diameter are not rare in the main branches. Each fibre is a tube, formed of a strong and elastic, sometimes fibrillated, sheath, in which nuclei are imbedded at irregular intervals and, when the nerve trunk gives off a branch, more or fewer of these tubes divide, sending off a prolongation into each branch.

When quite fresh, the contents of the tubes are perfectly pellucid, and without the least indication of structure; and, from the manner in which the contents exude from the cut ends of the tubes, it is evident that they consist of a fluid of gelatinous consistency. As the fibre dies, and under the influence of water and of many chemical re-agents, the contents break up into globules or become turbid and finely granular.

Where motor nerve fibres terminate in the muscles to which they are distributed, the sheath of each fibre becomes continuous with the sarcolemma of the muscle, and the subjacent protoplasm is commonly raised into a small prominence which contains several nuclei (fig. 52, F). These are called the terminal or motor plates.

6, 7. The ova and the spermatozoa have already been described (pp.132-135).




It will be observed that the blood corpuscles, the epithelial tissues, the ganglionic corpuscles, the ova and the spermatozoa, are all demonstrably nucleated cells, more or less modified. The first form of connective tissue is so similar to epithelial tissue, that it may obviously be regarded as an aggregate of as many cells as it presents nuclei, the matrix representing the more or less modified and confluent bodies of the cells, or products of these. But if this be so, then the second and third forms have a similar composition, except so far as the matrix of the cells has become fibrillated, or vacuolated, or marked off into masses corresponding with the several nuclei. By a parity of reasoning, muscular tissue may also be considered a cell aggregate, in which the internuclear substance has become converted into striated muscle; while, in the nerve fibres, a like process of metamorphosis may have given rise to the pellucid gelatinous nerve substance. But, if we accept the conclusions thus suggested by the comparison of the various tissues with one another, it follows that every histological element, which has now been mentioned, is either a simple nucleated cell, a modified nucleated cell, or a more or less modified cell aggregate. In other words, every tissue is resolvable into nucleated cells.

A notable exception to this generalisation, however, obtains in the case of the cuticular structures, in which no cellular components are discoverable. In its simplest form, such as that presented by the lining of the intestine, the cuticle is a delicate, transparent membrane, thrown off from the surface of the subjacent cells, either by a process of exudation, or by the chemical transformation of their superficial layer. No pores are discernible in this membrane, but scattered over its surface there are oval patches of extremely minute, sharp conical processes, which are rarely more than 1-5,000th of an inch long. Where the cuticle is thicker, as in the stomach and in the exoskeleton, it presents a stratified appearance, as if it were composed of a number of laminæ, of varying thickness, which had been successively thrown off from the subjacent cells.

[Figure 56: Astacus fluviatilis--The structure of the cuticle]

Where the cuticular layer of the integument is uncalcified, for example, between the sterna of the abdominal somites, it presents an external, thin, dense, wrinkled lamina, the epiostracum, followed by a soft substance, which, on vertical section, presents numerous alternately more transparent and more opaque bands, which run parallel with one another and with the free surfaces of the slice (fig. 56, D). These bands are very close-set, often not more than 1-5000th of an inch apart near the outer and the inner surfaces, but in the middle of the section they are more distant.

If a thin vertical slice of the soft cuticle is gently pulled with needles in the direction of its depth, it stretches to eight or ten times its previous diameter, the clear intervals between the dark bands becoming proportionally enlarged, especially in the middle of the slice, while the dark bands themselves become apparently thinner, and more sharply defined. The dark bands may then be readily drawn to a distance of as much as 1-300th of an inch from one another; but if the slice is stretched further, it splits along, or close to, one of the dark lines. The whole of the cuticular layer is stained by such colouring matters as hæmatoxylin; and, as the dark bands become more deeply coloured than the intermediate transparent substance, the transverse stratification is made very manifest by this treatment.

Examined with a high magnifying power, the transparent substance is seen to be traversed by close-set, faint, vertical lines, while the dark bands are shown to be produced by the cut edges of delicate laminæ having a finely striated appearance, as if they were composed of delicate parallel wavy fibrillæ.

In the calcified parts of the exoskeleton a thin, tough, wrinkled epiostracum (fig. 56, B, a), and, subjacent to this, a number of alternately lighter and darker strata are similarly discernible: though all but the innermost laminæ are hardened by a deposit of calcareous salts, which are generally evenly diffused, but sometimes take the shape of rounded masses with irregular contours.

Immediately beneath the epiostracum there is a zone which may occupy a sixth or a seventh of the thickness of the whole, which is more transparent than the rest, and often presents hardly any trace of horizontal or vertical striation. When it appears laminated, the strata are very thin. This zone may be distinguished as the ectostracum (b), from the endostracum (c), which makes up the rest of the exoskeleton. In the outer part of the endostracum, the strata are distinct, and may be as much as 1-500th of an inch thick, but in the inner part they become very thin, and the lines which separate them may be not more than 1-8000th of an inch apart. Fine, parallel, close-set, vertical striæ (e) traverse all the strata of the endostracum, and may usually be traced through the ectostracum, though they are always faint, and sometimes hardly discernible, in this region. When a high magnifying power is employed, it is seen that these striæ, which are about 1-7000th of an inch apart, are not straight, but that they present regular short undulations, the alternate convexities and concavities of which correspond with the light and the dark bands respectively.

If the hard exoskeleton has been allowed to become partially or wholly dry before the section is made, the latter will look white by reflected and black by transmitted light, in consequence of the places of the striæ being taken by threads of air of such extreme tenuity, that they may measure not more than 1-30,000th of an inch in diameter. It is to be concluded, therefore, that the striæ are the optical indications of parallel undulating canals which traverse the successive strata of the cuticle, and are ordinarily occupied by a fluid. When this dries up, the surrounding air enters, and more or less completely fills the tubes. And that this is really the case may be proved by making very thin sections parallel with the face of the exoskeleton, for these exhibit innumerable minute perforations, set at regular distances from one another, which correspond with the intervals between the striæ in the vertical section; and sometimes the contours of the areæ which separate the apertures are so well defined as to suggest a pavement of minute angular blocks, the corners of which do not quite meet.

When a portion of the hard exoskeleton is decalcified, a chitinous substance remains, which presents the same structure as that just described, except that the epiostracum is more distinct; while the ectostracum appears made up of very thin laminæ, and the tubes are represented by delicate striæ, which appear coarser in the region of the dark zones. As in the naturally soft parts of the exoskeleton, the decalcified cuticle may be split into flakes, and the pores are then seen to be disposed in distinct areæ circumscribed by clear polygonal borders. These perforated areæ appear to correspond with individual cells of the ectoderm, and the canals thus answer to the so-called "pore-canals," which are common in cuticular structures and in the walls of many cells which bound free surfaces.

The whole exoskeleton of the crayfish is, in fact, produced by the cells which underlie it, either by the exudation of a chitinous substance, which subsequently hardens, from them; or, as is more probable, by the chemical metamorphosis of a superficial zone of the bodies of the cells into chitin. However this may be, the cuticular products of adjacent cells at first form a simple, continuous, thin pellicle. A continuation of the process by which it was originated increases the thickness of the cuticle; but the material thus added to the inner surface of the latter is not always of the same nature, but is alternately denser and softer. The denser material gives rise to the tough laminæ, the softer to the intermediate transparent substance. But the quantity of the latter is at first very small, whence the more external laminæ are in close apposition. Subsequently the quantity of the intermediate substance increases, and gives rise to the thick stratification of the middle region, while it remains insignificant in the inner region of the exoskeleton.

The cuticular structures of the crayfish differ from the nails, hairs, hoofs, and similar hard parts of the higher animals, insomuch as the latter consist of aggregations of cells, the bodies of which have been metamorphosed into horny matter. The cuticle, with all its dependencies, on the contrary, though no less dependent on cells for its existence, is a derivative product, the formation of which does not involve the complete metamorphosis and consequent destruction of the cells to which it owes its origin.

The calcareous salts by which the calcified exoskeleton is hardened can only be supplied by the infiltration of a fluid in which they are dissolved from the blood; while the distinctive structural characters of the epiostracum, the ectostracum, and the endostracum, are the results of a process of metamorphosis which goes on pari passu with this infiltration. To what extent this metamorphosis is a properly vital process; and to what extent it is explicable by the ordinary physical and chemical properties of the animal membrane on the one hand, and the mineral salts on the other, is a curious, and at present, unsolved problem.

The outer surface of the cuticle is rarely smooth. Generally it is more or less obviously ridged or tuberculated; and, in addition, presents coarser or finer hairlike processes which exhibit every gradation from a fine microscopic down to stout spines. As these processes, though so similar to hairs in general appearance, are essentially different from the structures known as hairs in the higher animals, it is better to speak of them as setæ.

These setæ (fig. 56, F) are sometimes short, slender, conical filaments, the surface of which is quite smooth; sometimes the surface is produced into minute serrations, or scale-like prominences, disposed in two or more series; in other setæ, the axis gives off slender lateral branches; and in the most complicated form the branches are ornamented with lateral branchlets. For a certain distance from the base of the seta, its surface is usually smooth, even when the rest of its extent is ornamented with scales or branches. Moreover, the basal part of the seta is marked off from its apical moiety by a sort of joint which is indicated by a slight constriction, or by a peculiarity in the structure of the cuticula at this point. A seta almost always takes its origin from the bottom of a depression or pit of the layer of cuticle, from which it is developed, and at its junction with the latter it is generally thin and flexible, so that the seta moves easily in its socket. Each seta contains a cavity, the boundaries of which generally follow the outer contours of the seta. In a good many of the setæ, however, the parietes, near the base of the seta, are thickened in such a manner as almost, or completely, to obliterate the central cavity. However thick the cuticle may be at the point from which the setæ take their origin, it is always traversed by a funnel-shaped canal (fig. 56, B, d), which usually expands beneath the base of the seta. Through this canal the subjacent ectoderm extends up to the base of the seta, and can even be traced for some distance into its interior.

It has already been mentioned that the apodemata and the tendons of the muscles are infoldings of the cuticle, embraced and secreted by corresponding involutions of the ectoderm.

Thus the body of the crayfish is resolvable, in the first place, into a repetition of similar segments, the metameres, each of which consists of a somite and two appendages; the metameres are built up out of a few simple tissues; and, finally, the tissues are either aggregates of more or less modified nucleated cells, or are products of such cells. Hence, in ultimate morphological analysis, the crayfish is a multiple of the histological unit, the nucleated cell. [see End note 15]

What is true of the crayfish, is certainly true of all animals, above the very lowest. And it cannot yet be considered certain that the generalization fails to hold good even of the simplest manifestations of animal life; since recent investigations have demonstrated the presence of a nucleus in organisms in which it had hitherto appeared to be absent.

However this may be, there is no doubt that in the ease of man and of all vertebrated animals, in that of all arthropods, mollusks, echinoderms, worms, and inferior organisms down to the very lowest sponges, the process of morphological analysis yields the same result as in the case of the crayfish. The body is built up of tissues, and the tissues are either obviously composed of nucleated cells; or, from the presence of nuclei, they may be assumed to be the results of the metamorphosis of such cells; or they are cuticular structures.

The essential character of the nucleated. cell is that it consists of a protoplasmic substance, one part of which differs somewhat in its physical and chemical characters from the rest, and constitutes the nucleus. What part the nucleus plays in relation to the functions, or vital activities, of the cell is as yet unknown; but that it is the seat of operations of a different character from those which go on in the body of the cell is clear enough. For, as we have seen, however different the several tissues may be, the nuclei which they contain are very much alike; whence it follows, that if all these tissues were primitively composed of simple nucleated cells, it must be the bodies of the cells which have undergone metamorphosis, while the nuclei have remained relatively unchanged.

On the other hand, when cells multiply, as they do in all growing parts, by the division of one cell into two, the signs of the process of internal change which ends in fission are apparent in the nucleus before they are manifest in the body of the cell; and, commonly, the division of the former precedes that of the latter. Thus a single cell body may possess two nuclei, and may become divided into two cells by the subsequent aggregation of the two moieties of its protoplasmic substance round each of them, as a centre.

In some cases, very singular structural changes take place in the nuclei in the course of the process of cell-division. The granular or fibrillar contents of the nucleus, the wall of which becomes less distinct, arrange themselves in the form of a spindle or double cone, formed of extremely delicate filaments; and in the plane of the base of the double cone the filaments present knots or thickenings, just as if they were so many threads with a bead in the middle of each. When the nuclear spindle is viewed sideways, these beads or thickenings give rise to the appearance of a disk traversing the centre of the spindle. Soon each bead separates into two, and these move away from one another, but remain connected by a fine filament. Thus the structure which had the form of a double cone, with a disk in the middle, assumes that of a short cylinder, with a disk and a cone at each end. But as the distance between the two disks increases, the uniting filaments lose their parallelism, converge in the middle, and finally separate, so that two separate double cones are developed in place of the single one. Along with these changes in the nucleus, others occur in the protoplasm of the cell body, and its parts commonly display a tendency to arrange themselves in radii from the extremities of the cones as a centre; while, as the separation of the two secondary nuclear spindles becomes complete, the cell body gradually splits from the periphery inwards, in a direction at right angles to the common axis of the spindles and between their apices. Thus two cells are formed, where, previously, only one existed; and the nuclear spindles of each soon revert to the globular form and confused arrangement of the contents, characteristic of nuclei in their ordinary state. The formation of these nuclear spindles is very beautifully seen in the epithelial cells of the testis of the crayfish (fig. 33, p.132); but I have not been able to find distinct evidence of it elsewhere in this animal; and although the process has now been proved to take place in all the divisions of the animal kingdom, it would seem that nuclei may, and largely do, undergo division, without being converted into spindles.

The most cursory examination of any of the higher plants shows that the vegetable, like the animal body, is made up of various kinds of tissues, such as pith, woody fibre, spiral vessels, ducts, and so on. But even the most modified forms of vegetable tissue depart so little from the type of the simple cell, that the reduction of them all to that common type is suggested still more strongly than in the case of the animal fabric. And thus the nucleated cell appears to be the morphological unit of the plant no less than of the animal. Moreover, recent inquiry has shown that in the course of the multiplication of vegetable cells by division, the nuclear spindles may appear and run through all their remarkable changes by stages precisely similar to those which occur in animals.

The question of the universal presence of nuclei in cells may be left open in the ease of Plants, as in that of Animals; but, speaking generally, it may justly be affirmed that the nucleated cell is the morphological foundation of both divisions of the living world; and the great generalisation of Sebleiden and Schwann, that there is a fundamental agreement in structure and development between plants and animals, has, in substance, been merely confirmed and illustrated by the labours of the half century which has elapsed since its promulgation.

Not only is it true that the minute structure of the crayfish is, in principle, the same as that of any other animal, or of any plant, however different it may be in detail; but, in all animals (save some exceptional forms) above the lowest, the body is similarly composed of three layers, ectoderm, mesoderm, and endoderm, disposed around a central alimentary cavity. The ectoderm and the endoderm always retain their epithelial character; while the mesoderm, which is insignificant in the lower organisms, becomes, in the higher, far more complicated even than it is in the crayfish.

Moreover, in the whole of the Arthropoda, and the whole of the Vertebrata, to say nothing of other groups of animals, the body, as in the crayfish, is susceptible of distinction into a series of more or less numerous segments, composed of homologous parts. In each segment these parts are modified according to physiological requirements; and by the coalescence, segregation, and change of relative size and position of the segments, well characterized regions of the body are marked out. And it is remarkable that precisely the same principles are illustrated by the morphology of plants. A flower with its whorls of sepals, petals, stamens and carpels has the same relation to a stem with its whorls of leaves, as a crayfish's head has to its abdomen, or a dog's skull to its thorax.






It may be objected, however, that the morphological generalisations which have now been reached, are to a considerable extent of a speculative character; and that, in the case of our crayfish, the facts warrant no more than the assertion that the structure of that animal may be consistently interpreted, on the supposition that the body is made up of homologous somites and appendages, and that the tissues are the result of the modification of homologous histological elements or cells; and the objection is perfectly valid.

There can be no doubt that blood corpuscles, liver cells, and ova are all nucleated cells; nor any that the third, fourth, and fifth somites of the abdomen are constructed upon the same plan; for these propositions are mere statements of the anatomical facts. But when, from the presence of nuclei in connective tissue and muscles, we conclude that these tissues are composed of modified cells; or when we say that the ambulatory limbs of the thorax are of the same type as the abdominal limbs, the exopodite being suppressed, the statement, as the evidence stands at present, is no more than a convenient way of interpreting the facts. The question remains, has the muscle actually been formed out of nucleated cells? Has the ambulatory limb ever possessed an exopodite, and lost it?

The answer to these questions is to be sought in the facts of individual and ancestral development.

An animal not only is, but becomes; the crayfish is the product of an egg, in which not a single structure visible in the adult animal exists: in that egg the different tissues and organs make their appearance by a gradual process of evolution; and the study of this process can alone tell us whether the unity of composition suggested by the comparison of adult structures, is borne out by the facts of their development in the individual or not. The hypothesis that the body of the crayfish is made up of a series of homologous somites and appendages, and that all the tissues are composed of nucleated cells, might be only a permissible, because a useful, mode of colligating the facts of anatomy. The investigation of the actual manner in which the evolution of the body of the crayfish has been effected, is the only means of ascertaining whether it is anything more. And, in this sense, development is the criterion of all morphological speculations.




The first obvious change which takes place in an impregnated ovum is the breaking up of the yelk into smaller portions, each of which is provided with a nucleus, and is termed a blastomere. In a general morphological sense, a blastomere is a nucleated cell, and differs from an ordinary cell only in size, and in the usual, though by no means invariable, abundance of granular contents; and blastomeres insensibly pass into ordinary cells, as the process of division of the yelk into smaller and smaller portions goes on.

In a great many animals, the splitting-up into blastomeres is effected in such a manner that the yelk is, at first, divided into equal, or nearly equal, masses; that each of these again divides into two; and that the number of blastomeres thus increases in geometrical progression until the entire yelk is converted into a mulberry-like body, termed a morula, made up of a great number of small blastomeres or nucleated cells. The whole organism is subsequently built up by the multiplication, the change of position, and the metamorphosis of these products of yelk division.

In such a case as this, yelk division is said to be complete. An unessential modification of complete yelk division is seen when, at an early period, the blastomeres produced by division are of unequal sizes; or when they become unequal in consequence of division taking place much more rapidly in one set than in another.

In many animals, especially those which have large ova, the inequality of division is pushed so far that only a portion of the yelk is affected by the process of fission, while the rest serves merely as food-yelk, for nutriment to the blastomeres thus produced. Over a greater or less extent of the surface of the egg, the protoplasmic substance of the yelk segregates itself from the rest, and, constituting a germinal layer, breaks up into the blastomeres, which multiply at the expense of the food-yelk, and fabricate the body of the embryo. This process is termed partial or incomplete yelk division.

[Figure 57: Astacus fluviatilis--Diagrammatic sections of embryos]

The crayfish is one of those animals in the egg of which the yelk undergoes partial division. The first steps of the process have not yet been thoroughly worked out, but their result is seen in ova which have been but a short time laid (fig. 57, A). In such eggs, the great mass of the substance of the vitellus is destined to play the part of food-yelk; and it is disposed in conical masses, which radiate from a central spheroidal portion to the periphery of the yelk (v). Corresponding with the base of each cone, there is a clear protoplasmic plate, which contains a nucleus; and as these bodies are all in contact by their edges, they form a complete, though thin, investment to the food-yelk. This is termed the blastoderm (bl).

Each nucleated protoplasmic plate adheres firmly to the corresponding cone of granular food-yelk, and, in all probability, the two together represent a blastomere; but, as the cones only indirectly subserve the growth of the embryo, while the nucleated peripheral plates form an independent spherical sac, out of which the body of the young crayfish is gradually fashioned, it will be convenient to deal with the latter separately.

Thus, at this period, the body of the developing crayfish is nothing but a spherical bag, the thin walls of which are composed of a single layer of nucleated cells, while its cavity is filled with food-yelk. The first modification which is effected in the vesicular blastoderm manifests itself on that face of it which is turned towards the pedicle of the egg. Here the layer of cells becomes thickened throughout an oval area about 1-25th of an inch in diameter. Hence, when the egg is viewed by reflected light, a whitish patch of corresponding form and size appears in this region. This may be termed the germinal disk. Its long axis corresponds with that of the future crayfish.

[Figure 58: Astacus fluviatilis--Surface views of the earlier stages in the development of the embryo]

Next, a depression (fig. 58, A, bp) appears in the hinder third of the germinal disk, in consequence of this part of the blastoderm growing inwards, and thus giving rise to a small wide-mouthed pouch, which projects into the food-yelk with which the cavity of the blastoderm is filled (fig. 57, B, mg). As this infolding, or invagination of the blastoderm, goes on, the pouch thus produced increases, while its external opening, termed the blastopore (fig. 57, B, and 58, A-E, bp), diminishes in size. Thus the body of the embryo crayfish, from being a simple bag becomes a double bag, such as might be produced by pushing in the wall of an incompletely distended india-rubber ball with the finger. And, in this case, if the interior of the bag contained porridge, the latter would very fairly represent the food-yelk.

By this invagination a most important step has been taken in the development of the crayfish. For, though the pouch is nothing but an ingrowth of part of the blastoderm, the cells of which its wall is composed henceforward exhibit different tendencies from those which are possessed by the rest of the blastoderm. In fact, it is the primitive alimentary apparatus or archenteron, and its wall is termed the hypoblast. The rest of the blastoderm, on the contrary, is the primitive epidermis, and receives the name of epiblast. If the food-yelk were away, and the archenteron enlarged until the hypoblast came in contact with the epiblast, the entire body would be a double-walled sac, containing an alimentary cavity, with a single external aperture. This is the gastrula condition of the embryo; and some animals, such as the common fresh-water polype, are little more than permanent gastrulæ.

Although the gastrula has not the slightest resemblance to a crayfish, yet, as soon as the hypoblast and the epiblast are thus differentiated, the foundations of some of the most important systems of organs of the future crustacean are laid. The hypoblast will give rise to the epithelial lining of the mid-gut; the epiblast (which answers to the ectoderm in the adult) to the epithelia of the fore-gut and hind-gut, to the epidermis, and to the central nervous system.

The mesodermal structures, that is to say the connective tissue, the muscles, the heart and vessels, and the reproductive organs, which lie between the ectoderm and the endoderm, are not derived directly from either the epiblast or the hypoblast, but have a quasi-independent origin, from a mass of cells which first makes its appearance in the neighborhood of the blastopore, between the hypoblast and the epiblast, though they are probably derived from the former. From this region they gradually spread, first over the sternal, and then on to the tergal aspect of the embryo, and constitute the mesoblast.

Epiblast, hypoblast, and mesoblast are at first alike constituted of nothing but nucleated cells, and they increase in dimensions by the continual fission and growth of these cells. The several layers become gradually modelled into the organs which they constitute, before the cells undergo any notable modification into tissues. A limb, for example, is, at first, a mere cellular out-growth, or bud, composed of an outer coat of epiblast with an inner core of mesoblast; and it is only subsequently that its component cells are metamorphosed into well-defined epidermic and connective tissues, vessels and muscles.

The embryo crayfish remains only a short while in the gastrula stage, as the blastopore soon closes up, and the archenteron takes the form of a sac, flattened out between the epiblast and the food-yelk, with which its cells are in close contact (fig. 57, C and D). [note 2] Indeed, as development proceeds, the cells of the hypoblast actually feed upon the substance of the food-yelk, and turn it to account for the general nutrition of the body.

[Figure 59: Astacus fluviatilis--Ventral and lateral views of the embryo in successive stages of development]

The sternal area of the embryo gradually enlarges until it occupies one hemisphere of the yelk; in other words, the thickening of the epiblast gradually extends outwards. Just in front of the blastopore, as it closes, the middle of the epiblast grows out into a rounded elevation (fig. 58, t a; fig. 59, ab), which rapidly increases in length, and at the same time turns forwards. This is the rudiment of the whole abdomen of the crayfish. Further forwards, two broad and elongated, but flatter thickenings appear; one on each side of the middle line (fig. 58, p c). As the free end of the abdominal papilla now marks the hinder extremity of the embryo, so do these two elevations, which are termed the procephalic lobes, define its anterior termination. The whole sternal region of the body will be produced by the elongation of that part of the embryo which lies between these two limits.

A narrow longitudinal groove-like depression appears on the surface of the epiblast, in the middle line, between the procephalic lobes and the base of the abdominal papilla (fig. 58, C-F, m g). About its centre, this groove becomes further depressed by the ingrowth of the epiblast, which constitutes its floor, and gives rise to a short tubular sac, which is the rudiment of the whole fore-gut (fig. 57, C, and ( fig. 58, E, fg). At first, this epiblastic ingrowth does not communicate with the archenteron, but, after a while, its blind end combines with the front and lower part of the hypoblast, and an opening is formed by which the cavity of the fore-gut communicates with that of the mid-gut (fig. 57, E). Thus a gullet and stomach, or rather the parts which will eventually give rise to all these, are constituted. And it is important to remark that, in comparison with the mid-gut, they are, at first, very small.

In the same way, the epiblast covering the sternal face of the abdominal papilla undergoes invagination and is converted into a narrow tube which is the origin of the whole hind-gut (fig. 57, C, and fig. 58, F, hg). This, like the fore-gut, is at first blind; but the shut front end soon applying itself to the hinder wall of the archenteric sac, the two coalesce and open into one another (fig. 57, F). Thus the complete alimentary canal, consisting of a very narrow, tubular, fore- and hind-gut, derived from the epiblast, and a wider and more sac-like mid-gut, formed of the whole hypoblast, is constituted.

The procephalic lobes become more convex; while, behind them, the surface of the epiblast rises into six elevations disposed in pairs, one on each side of the median groove. The hindermost of these, which lie at the sides of the mouth, are the rudiments of the mandibles (fig. 58, E and F, 4); the other two become the antennæ (3) and the antennules (2), while, at a later period, processes of the procephalic lobes give rise to the eyestalks.

A short distance behind the abdomen, the epiblast rises into a transverse ridge, which is concave forwards, while its ends are prolonged on each side nearly as far as the mouth. This is the commencement of the free edge of the carapace (fig. 58, E and F, and (fig. 59, A, c)--the lateral parts of which, greatly enlarging, become the branchiostegites (fig. 59, 1), c).

In many animals allied to crayfish, the young, when it has reached a stage in its development, which answers to this, undergoes rapid changes of outward form and of internal structure, without making any essential addition to the number of the appendages. The appendages which represent the antennules, the antennæ, and the mandibles elongate and become oar-like locomotive organs; a single median eye is developed, and the young leaves the egg as an active larva, which is known as a Nauplius. The crayfish, on the other hand, is wholly incapable of an independent existence at this stage, and continues its embryonic life within the egg case; but it is a remarkable circumstance that the cells of the epiblast secrete a delicate cuticula, which is subsequently shed. It is as if the animal symbolized a nauplius condition by the development of this cuticle, as the foetal whalebone whale symbolizes a toothed condition by developing teeth which are subsequently lost and never perform any function.

In fact, in the crayfish, the nauplius condition is soon left behind. The sternal disk spreads more and more over the yelk; as the region between the mouth and the root of the abdomen elongates, slight transverse depressions indicate the boundaries of the posterior cephalic and the thoracic somites; and pairs of elevations, similar to the rudiments of the antennules and antennæ, appear upon them in regular order from before backwards (fig. 59, C).

In the meanwhile, the extremity of the abdomen flattens out and takes on the form of an oval plate, the middle of the posterior margin of which is slightly truncated or notched; while, finally, transverse constrictions mark off six segments, the somites of the abdomen, in front of this. Along with these changes, four pairs of tubercles grow out from the sternal faces of the four middle abdominal somites, and constitute the rudiments of the four middle pairs of abdominal appendages. The first abdominal somite exhibits only two hardly perceptible elevations in place of the appendages of the others, while the sixth seems, at first, to have none. The appendages of the sixth somite, however, are already formed, though, singularly enough, they lie beneath the cuticle of the telson and are set free only after the first ecdysis.

The rostrum grows out between the procephalic lobes; it remains relatively very short up to the time that the young crayfish quits the egg, and is directed more downwards than forwards. The lateral portions of the carapacial ridge, becoming deeper, are converted into the branchiostegites, and the cavities which they overarch are the branchial chambers. The transverse portion of the ridge, on the other hand, remains relatively short, and constitutes the free posterior margin of the carapace.

As these changes take place, the abdomen and the sternal region of the thorax are constantly enlarging in proportion to the rest of the ovum; and the food-yelk which lies in the cephalothorax is, pari passu, being diminished. Hence the cephalothorax constantly becomes relatively smaller and the tergal aspect of the carapace less spherical; although, even when the young crayfish is ready to be hatched, the difference between it and the adult in the form of the cephalothoracic region, and in the size of the latter relatively to the abdomen, is very marked.

The simple bud-like outgrowths of the somites, in which all the appendages take their origin, are rapidly metamorphosed. The eyestalks (fig. 59, 1) soon attain a considerable relative size. The extremities of the antennules (2) and of the antennæ (3) become bifurcated; and the two divisions of the antennule remain broad, thick, and of nearly the same size up to birth. On the other hand, the inner or endopoditic division of the antenna becomes immensely lengthened, and at the same time annulated, while the outer or exopoditic division remains relatively short, and acquires its characteristic scale-like form.

The labrum (lb) arises as a prolongation of the middle sternal region in front of the mouth, while the bilobed metastoma is an outgrowth of the sternal region behind it.

The posterior cephalic and the thoracic appendages (5-14) elongate and gradually approach the form which they possess in the adult. I have not been able to discover, at any period of development, an outer division or exopodite in any of the five posterior thoracic limbs. And this is a very remarkable circumstance, inasmuch as such an exopodite exists in the closely allied lobster in the larval state; and, in many of the shrimp and prawn-like allies of the crayfish, a complete or rudimentary exopodite is found in these limbs, even in the adult condition.

[Figure 60: Astacus fluviatilis--Newly-hatched young]

When the crayfish is hatched (fig. 60) it differs from the adult in many ways--not only is the cephalothorax more convex and larger in proportion to the abdomen; but the rostrum is short and bent down between the eyes. The sterna of the thorax are wider relatively, and hence there is a greater interval between the bases of the legs than in the adult. The proportion of the limbs to one another and to the body are nearly the same as in the adult, but the chelæ of the forceps are more slender. The tips of the chelæ are all strongly incurved (fig. 8, B, p.41), and the dactylopodites of the two posterior thoracic limbs are hook-like. The appendages of the first abdominal somite are undeveloped, and those of the last are inclosed within the telson, which is, as has already been said, of a broad oval form, usually notched in the middle of its hinder margin, and devoid of any indication of transverse division. Its margins are produced into a single series of short conical processes, and the disposition of the vascular canals in its interior gives it the appearance of being radially striated.

The setæ, so abundant in the adult, are very scanty in the newly hatched young; and the great majority of those which exist are simple conical prolongations of the uncalcified cuticle, the bases of which are not sunk in pits and which are devoid of lateral scales or processes.

The young animals are firmly attached to the abdominal appendages of the parent in the manner already described. They are very sluggish, though they move when touched; and at this period they do not feed, but are nourished by the food-yelk, of which a considerable store still remains in the cephalothorax.

I imagine that they are set free during the first ecdysis, and that the appendages of the sixth abdominal somite are at that time expanded, but nothing is definitely known at present of these changes. [see End note 16]




The foregoing sketch of the general nature of the changes which take place in the egg of the crayfish suffice to show that its development is, in the strictest sense of the word, a process of evolution. The egg is a relatively homogeneous mass of living protoplasmic matter, containing much nutritive material; and the development of the crayfish means the gradual conversion of this comparatively simple body into an organism of great complexity. The yelk becomes differentiated into formative and nutritive portions. The formative portion is subdivided into histological units: these arrange themselves into a blastodermic vesicle; the blastoderm becomes differentiated into epiblast, hypoblast, and mesoblast; and the simple vesicle assumes the gastrula condition. The layers of the gastrula shape themselves into the body of the crayfish and its appendages, while along with this, the cells of which all the parts are built, become metamorphosed into tissues, each with its characteristic properties. And all these wonderful changes are the necessary consequences of the interaction of the molecular forces resident in the substance of the impregnated ovum, with the conditions to which it is exposed; just as the forms evolved from a crystallising fluid are dependent upon the chemical composition of the dissolved matter and the influence of surrounding conditions.

Without entering into details which lie beyond the scope of the present work, something must be said respecting the manner in which the complicated internal organisation of the crayfish is evolved from the cellular double sac of the gastrula stage.

It has been seen that the fore-gut is at first an insignificant tubular involution of the epiblast in the region of the mouth. It is, in fact, a part of the epiblast turned inwards, and the cells of which it is composed secrete a thin cuticular layer, as do those of the rest of the epiblast, which gives rise to the ectodermal or epidermic part of the integument. As the embryo grows, the fore-gut enlarges much faster than the mid-gut, increasing in height and from before backwards, while its side-walls remain parallel, and are separated by only a narrow cavity. At length, it takes on the shape of a triangular bag (fig. 57, D, fg), attached by its narrow end around the mouth and immersed in the food-yelk, which it gradually divides into two lobes, one on the right and one on the left side. At the same time a vertical plate of mesoblastic tissue, from which the great anterior and posterior muscles are eventually developed, connects it with the roof and with the front wall of the carapace. Becoming constricted in the middle, the fore-gut next appears to consist of two dilatations of about equal size, connected by a narrower passage (fig. 57, F, fg1, jg2). The front dilatation becomes the oesophagus and the cardiac division of the stomach; the hinder one, the pyloric division. At the sides of the front end of the cardiac division two small pouches are formed shortly after birth; in each of these a thick laminated deposit of chitin takes place, and constitutes a minute crab's-eye or gastrolith, which has the same structure as in the adult, and is largely calcified. This fact is the more remarkable as, at this time, the exoskeleton contains very little calcareous deposit. In the position of the gastric teeth, folds of the cellular wall of corresponding shape are formed, and the chitinous cuticle of which the teeth are composed is, as it were, modelled upon them.

The hind-gut occupies the whole length of the abdomen, and its cells early arrange themselves into six ridges, and secrete a cuticular layer.

The mid-gut, or hypoblastic sac, very soon gives off numerous small prolongations on each side of its hinder extremity, and these are converted into the cæca of the liver (fig. 57, E, mg). The cells of its tergal wall are in close contact with the adjacent masses of food-yelk; and it is probable that the gradual absorption of the food-yelk is chiefly effected by these cells. At birth, however, the lateral lobes of the food-yelk are still large, and occupy the space left between the stomach and liver on the one hand, and the cephalic integument on the other.

The mesoblastic cells give rise to the layer of connective tissue which forms the deeper portion of the integument, and to that which invests the alimentary canal; to all the muscles; and to the heart, the vessels, and the corpuscles of the blood. The heart appears very early as a solid mass of mesoblastic cells in the tergal region of the thorax, just in front of the origin of the abdomen (figs. 57, 58, 59, h). It soon becomes hollow, and its walls exhibit rhythmical contractions.

The branchiæ are, at first, simple papillæ of the integument of the region from which they take their rise. These papillæ elongate into stems, which give off lateral filaments. The podobranchiæ are at first similar to the arthrobranchiæ, but an outgrowth soon takes place near the free end of the stem, and becomes the lamina, while the attached end enlarges into the base.

The renal organ is stated to arise by a tubular involution of the epiblast, which soon becomes convoluted, and gives rise to the green gland.

The central nervous system is wholly a product of the epiblast. The cells which lie at the sides of the longitudinal groove already mentioned (fig. 58, mg), grow inwards, and give rise to two cords which are at first separate from one another and continuous with the rest of the epiblast. At the front end of the groove a depression arises, and its cells form a mass which connects these two cords in front of the mouth, and gives rise to the cerebral ganglia. The epiblastic linings of two small pits (fig. 58, o) which appear very early on the surface of the procephalic lobes, are also carried inwards in the same way, and, uniting with the foregoing, produce the optic ganglia.

The cells of the longitudinal cords become differentiated into nerve fibres and nerve cells, and the latter, gathering towards certain points, give rise to the ganglia which eventually unite in the middle line. By degrees, the ingrowth of epiblastic cells, from which all these structures are developed, becomes completely separated from the rest of the epiblast, and is invested by mesoblastic cells. The central nervous system, therefore, in a crayfish, as in a vertebrated animal, is at first, as a part of the ectoderm, morphologically one with the epidermis; and the deep and protected position which it occupies in the adult is only a consequence of the mode in which the nervous portion of the ectoderm grows inwards and becomes detached from the epidermic portion.

The visual rods of the eye are merely modified cells of the ectoderm. The auditory sac is formed by an involution of the ectoderm of the basal joint of the antennule. At birth it is a shallow wide-mouthed depression, and contains no otoliths.

Lastly, the reproductive organs result from the segregation and special modification of cells of the mesoblast behind the liver. Rathke states that the sexual apertures are not visible until the young crayfish has attained the length of an inch; and that the first pair of abdominal appendages of the male appear still later in the form of two papillæ, which gradually elongate and take on their characteristic forms.










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[Author's Notes to Chapter 4]

[Note 1]: There are some singular marine crustacea, the Squillidæ, in which both the ophthalmic and the antennary somites are free and movable, while the rostrum is articulated with the tergum of the antennary somite.

[Note 2]: Whether, as some observers state, the hypoblastic cells grow over and inclose the food-yelk or not, is a question that may be left open. I have not been able to satisfy myself of this fact.








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