RENEWED STUDY OF GERMINAL LAYERS OF THE CHICK. 855 



the other is C. Roller, who has published his memoir l still more 

 recently. Both of them cover part of the ground of our in- 

 vestigations, and their results are in many, though not in all 

 points, in harmony with our own. Both of them, moreover, lay 

 stress on certain features in the development which have escaped 

 our attention. We desired to work over these points again, but 

 various circumstances have prevented our doing so, and we have 

 accordingly thought it best to publish our observations as they 

 stand, in spite of their incompleteness, merely indicating where 

 the most important gaps occur. 



Our observations commence at a stage a few hours after 

 hatching, but before the appearance of the primitive streak. 



The area pellucida is at this stage nearly spherical. In it 

 there is a large oval opaque patch, which is continued to the 

 hinder border of the area. This opaque patch has received the 

 name of the embryonic shield a somewhat inappropriate name, 

 since the structure in question has no very definite connection 

 with the formation of the embryo. 



Roller describes, at this stage, in addition to the so-called 

 embryonic shield, a sickle-shaped opaque appearance at the 

 hinder border of the area pellucida. 



We have not made any fresh investigations for the purpose 

 of testing Roller's statements on this subject. 



Embryologists are in the main agreed as to the structure of 

 the blastoderm at this stage. There is (PL 43, Ser. A, I and 2) 

 the epiblast above, forming a continuous layer, extending over 

 the whole of the area opaca and area pellucida. In the former 

 its cells are arranged as a single row, and are cubical or slightly 

 flattened. In the latter the cells are more columnar, and form, 

 in the centre especially, more or less clearly, a double row ; 

 many of them, however, extend through the whole thickness of 

 the layer. 



We have obtained evidence at this stage which tends to shew 

 that at its outer border the epiblast grows not merely by the 

 division of its own cells, but also by the addition of cells derived 

 from the yolk below. The epiblast has been observed to extend 

 itself over the yolk by a similar process in many invertebrate forms. 



1 " Untersuch. lib. d. Blatterbildung im Hiihnerkeim," Archiv f. mikr. Atiat. 

 Vol. xx. 1 88 1. 



