DEVELOPMENT OF THE EYE. 



253 



In the embryo of Man, as in that of all other Amphi- 

 rhina, two pear-shaped vesicles grow out laterally, at a very 

 early period, from the foremost part of the first brain 

 bladder (Fig. 223, a, p. 218). These bladder-like protuberances 

 are the primary eye- vesicles. At first they are directed 

 outward and forward, but they soon make their way further 

 downward, so that after the specialization of the live brain- 

 bladders, they lie at the base of the twixt-brain. The 

 internal spaces within the two pear-shaped vesicles, which 

 soon attain a considerable size, communicate through their 

 hollow stalks with the cavity of the twixt-brain. Their 

 outer covering is formed by the outer skin-covering (horn- 

 plate and leather-plate). Where, on each side, the latter 

 comes directly in contact with the most curved portion of 

 the primary eye-vesicles, a thickening (I) arises, and at the 

 same time a groove-like indentation (0) in the horn-plate 

 (Fig. 242, 1). This groove, which we will call the lens groove, 

 changes into a closed sac, the thick- walled lens vesicle (2, 1), 

 owing to the fact that the edges of the groove coalesce above 



Fig. 242.— Eye of an embryonic Chick in longitudinal section (1, of a 

 germ after sixty-five hours of incubation; 2, of a somewhat older germ; 

 3, of a germ four days old) : h, horn-plate ; o, lens groove ; I, lens (in 1^ 

 it still forms part of the epidermis, while in 2 and 3 it has separated) ; x, 

 thickening of the horn-plate at the point from which the lens separated ; 

 gl, vitreous body; r, retina; u, pigment membrane. (After Remak.) 



