BARLY DEVELOPMENT OF RANA TEMPORARIA. 123 
Some Notes on the Early Development of 
Rana temporaria. 
By 
W. Baldwin Spencer, B.A., 
Scholar of Exeter College, Oxford. 
With Plate X. 
Tuer following work has been carried on chiefly in the 
laboratory of the University Museum, Oxford; and I must 
here acknowledge the kindness and assistance received from 
Professor Moseley. 
This paper deals firstly with the question of the fate of the 
blastopore, and secondly with some points in connection 
with the early development of the cranial nerves. I hope 
before long to publish a further paper dealing with the latter 
subject. 
(1) Fare or THE BLastopore. 
Up to very recent times it was stated, in accordance with the 
well-known investigations of Gétte on Bombinator and Scott 
and Osborne on Triton, that in both anurous and urodelous 
Amphibians, the blastopore was enclosed by the growth of the 
neural! folds, and thus formed a means of communication 
1 Would it not be much simpler, if instead of using the term “ medullary ” 
in connection with the development of the central nervous system, the word 
‘“‘ neural” were used throughout? We should then have a complete, uniform 
series of terms, viz. neural plate, neural folds, neural groove, neural canal, 
neural ridge, and also neurenteric canal. In this article I have adopted the 
above nomenclature. 
