The Evolution of Man, vol 1 by Ernst Haeckel (paper ebook reader .txt) 📕

organ. If we compare the face of the long-nosed ape with that of abnormally ape-like human beings (such as the famous Miss Julia Pastrana, Figure 1.185), it will be admitted to represent a higher stage of development. There are still people among us who look especially to the face for the “image of God in man.” The long-nosed ape would have more claim to this than some of the stumpy-nosed human individuals one meets.

This progressive divergence of the human from the animal form, which is based on the law of the ontogenetic connection between related forms, is found in the structure of the internal organs as well as in external form. It is also expressed in the construction of the envelopes and appendages that we find surrounding the foetus externally, and that we will now consider more closely. Two of these appendages—the amnion and the allantois—are only found in the three higher classes of vertebrates, while the third, the yelk-sac, is found in most of the vertebrates. This is a circumstance of great importance, and it gives us valuable data for constructing man’s genealogical tree.

(FIGURE 1.195. Diagram of the embryonic organs of the mammal (foetal membranes and appendages). (From Turner.) E, M, H outer, middle, and inner germ layer of the embryonic shield, which is figured in median longitudinal section, seen from the left. am amnion. AC amniotic cavity, UV yelk-sac or umbilical vesicle, ALC allantois, al pericoelom or serocoelom (interamniotic cavity), sz serolemma (or serous membrane), pc prochorion (with villi).) As regards the external membrane that encloses the ovum in the mammal womb, we find it just the same in man as in the higher mammals. The ovum is, the reader will remember, first surrounded by the transparent structureless ovolemma or zona pellucida (Figures 1.1 and 1.14). But very soon, even in the first week of development, this is replaced by the permanent chorion. This is formed from the external layer of the amnion, the serolemma, or “serous membrane,” the formation of which we shall consider presently; it surrounds the foetus and its appendages as a broad, completely closed sac; the space between the two, filled with clear watery fluid, is the serocoelom, or interamniotic cavity (“extra-embryonic body-cavity”). But the smooth surface of the sac is quickly covered with numbers of tiny tufts, which are really hollow outgrowths like the fingers of a glove (Figures 1.186, 1.191 and 1.198

chz). They ramify and push into the corresponding depressions that are formed by the tubular glands of the mucous membrane of the maternal womb. Thus, the ovum secures its permanent seat (Figures 1.186 to 1.194).

In human ova of eight to twelve days this external membrane, the chorion, is already covered with small tufts or villi, and forms a ball or spheroid of one-fourth to one-third of an inch in diameter (Figures 1.186 to 1.188). As a large quantity of fluid gathers inside it, the chorion expands more and more, so that the embryo only occupies a small part of the space within the vesicle. The villi of the chorion grow larger and more numerous. They branch out more and more. At first the villi cover the whole surface, but they afterwards disappear from the greater part of it; they then develop with proportionately greater vigour at a spot where the placenta is formed from the allantois.

When we open the chorion of a human embryo of three weeks, we find on the ventral side of the foetus a large round sac, filled with fluid.

This is the yelk-sac, or “umbilical vesicle,” the origin of which we have considered previously. The larger the embryo becomes the smaller we find the yelk-sac. In the end we find the remainder of it in the shape of a small pear-shaped vesicle, fastened to a long thin stalk (or pedicle), and hanging from the open belly of the foetus (Figure 1.194). This pedicle is the vitelline duct, and is separated from the body at the closing of the navel.

Behind the yelk-sac a second appendage, of much greater importance, is formed at an early stage at the belly of the mammal embryo. This is the allantois or “primitive urinary sac,” an important embryonic organ, only found in the three higher classes of vertebrates. In all the amniotes the allantois quickly appears at the hinder end of the alimentary canal, growing out of the cavity of the pelvic gut (Figure 1.147 r, u, Figure 1.195 ALC}.

(FIGURE 1.196. Diagrammatic frontal section of the pregnant human womb. (From Longet.) The embryo hangs by the umbilical cord, which encloses the pedicle of the allantois (al). nb umbilical vessel, am amnion, ch chorion, ds decidua serotina, dv decidua vera, dr decidua reflexa, z villi of the placenta, c cervix uteri, u uterus.) The further development of the allantois varies considerably in the three sub-classes of the mammals. The two lower sub-classes, monotremes and marsupials, retain the simpler structure of their ancestors, the reptiles. The wall of the allantois and the enveloping serolemma remains smooth and without villi, as in the birds. But in the third sub-class of the mammals the serolemma forms, by invagination at its outer surface, a number of hollow tufts or villi, from which it takes the name of the chorion or mallochorion. The gut-fibre layer of the allantois, richly supplied with branches of the umbilical vessel, presses into these tufts of the primary chorion, and forms the “secondary chorion.” Its embryonic blood-vessels are closely correlated to the contiguous maternal blood-vessels of the environing womb, and thus is formed the important nutritive apparatus of the embryo which we call the placenta.

The pedicle of the allantois, which connects the embryo with the placenta and conducts the strong umbilical vessels from the former to the latter, is covered by the amnion, and, with this amniotic sheath and the pedicle of the yelk-sac, forms what is called the umbilical cord (Figure 1.196 al). As the large and blood-filled vascular network of the foetal allantois attaches itself closely to the mucous lining of the maternal womb, and the partition between the blood-vessels of mother and child becomes much thinner, we get that remarkable nutritive apparatus of the foetal body which is characteristic of the placentalia (or choriata). We shall return afterwards to the closer consideration of this (cf. Chapter 2.23).

In the various orders of mammals the placenta undergoes many modifications, and these are in part of great evolutionary importance and useful in classification. There is only one of these that need be specially mentioned—the important fact, established by Selenka in 1890, that the distinctive human placentation is confined to the anthropoids. In this most advanced group of the mammals the allantois is very small, soon loses its cavity, and then, in common with the amnion, undergoes certain peculiar changes. The umbilical cord develops in this case from what is called the “ventral pedicle.” Until very recently this was regarded as a structure peculiar to man. We now know from Selenka that the much-discussed ventral pedicle is merely the pedicle of the allantois, combined with the pedicle of the amnion and the rudimentary pedicle of the yelk-sac. It has just the same structure in the orang and gibbon (Figure 1.197) and very probably in the chimpanzee and gorilla, as in man; it is, therefore, not a DISPROOF, but a striking fresh proof, of the blood-relationship of man and the anthropoid apes.

(FIGURE 1.197. Male embryo of the Siamang-gibbon (Hylobates siamanga) of Sumatra, two-thirds natural size; to the left the dissected uterus, of which only the dorsal half is given. The embryo has been taken out, and the limbs folded together; it is still connected by the umbilical cord with the centre of the circular placenta which is attached to the inside of the womb. This embryo takes the head-position in the womb, and this is normal in man also.)

We find only in the anthropoid apes—the gibbon and orang of Asia and the chimpanzee and gorilla of Africa—the peculiar and elaborate formation of the placenta that characterises man (Figure 1.198). In this case there is at an early stage an intimate blending of the chorion of the embryo and the part of the mucous lining of the womb to which it attaches. The villi of the chorion with the blood-vessels they contain grow so completely into the tissue of the uterus, which is rich in blood, that it becomes impossible to separate them, and they form together a sort of cake. This comes away as the “afterbirth”

at parturition; at the same time, the part of the mucous lining of the womb that has united inseparably with the chorion is torn away; hence it is called the decidua (“falling-away membrane”), and also the “sieve-membrane,” because it is perforated like a sieve. We find a decidua of this kind in most of the higher placentals; but it is only in man and the anthropoid apes that it divides into three parts—the outer, inner, and placental decidua. The external or true decidua (Figure 1.196 du, Figure 1.199 g) is the part of the mucous lining of the womb that clothes the inner surface of the uterine cavity wherever it is not connected with the placenta. The placental or spongy decidua (placentalis or serotina, Figure 1.196 ds, Figure 1.199 d) is really the placenta itself, or the maternal part of it (placenta uterina)—namely, that part of the mucous lining of the womb which unites intimately with the chorion-villi of the foetal placenta. The internal or false decidua (interna or reflexa, Figure 1.196 dr, Figure 1.199 f) is that part of the mucous lining of the womb which encloses the remaining surface of the ovum, the smooth chorion (chorion laeve), in the shape of a special thin membrane. The origin of these three different deciduous membranes, in regard to which quite erroneous views (still retained in their names) formerly prevailed, is now quite clear, The external decidua vera is the specially modified and subsequently detachable superficial stratum of the original mucous lining of the womb. The placental decidua serotina is that part of the preceding which is completely transformed by the ingrowth of the chorion-villi, and is used for constructing the placenta. The inner decidua reflexa is formed by the rise of a circular fold of the mucous lining (at the border of the decidua vera and serotina), which grows over the foetus (like the anmnion) to the end.

The peculiar anatomic features that characterise the human foetal membranes are found in just the same way in the higher apes. Until recently it was thought that the human embryo was distinguished by its peculiar construction of a solid allantois and a special ventral pedicle, and that the umbilical cord developed from this in a different way than in the other mammals. The opponents of the unwelcome “ape-theory” laid great stress on this, and thought they had at last discovered an important indication that separated man from all the other placentals. But the remarkable discoveries published by the distinguished zoologist Selenka in 1890 proved that man shares these peculiarities of placentation with the anthropoid apes, though they are not found in the other apes. Thus the very feature which was advanced by our critics as a disproof became a most important piece of evidence in favour of our pithecoid origin.) (FIGURE 1.198. Frontal section of the pregnant human womb, showing: end of the decidua, uterine cavity, chorion (laeve), amniotic cavity, foetal placenta, oviduct, spongy decidua serotina, umbilical vesicle, amnion, decidua reflexa, decidua vera, muscular wall of the uterus, mouth of the uterus. (From Turner.) The embryo (a month old) hangs in the middle of the amniotic cavity by the ventral pedicle or umbilical cord, which connects it with the placenta (above).

FIGURE 1.199. Human foetus, twelve weeks old, with its membranes.

Natural size. The umbilical cord goes from its navel to the placenta.

b amnion, c chorion, d placenta, d apostrophe, relics of villi on smooth chorion, f internal or reflex