Some experiments on the developing ear vesicle of the tadpole with relation to equilibration / by George L. Streeter.

  • George Linius Streeter
Date:
1906
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Licence: In copyright

Credit: Some experiments on the developing ear vesicle of the tadpole with relation to equilibration / by George L. Streeter. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    From the Anatomical Laboratory of the Johns Hopkins University I3L - V V. SOME EXPERIMENTS ON THE DEVELOPING EAR VESICLE OF THE TADPOLE WITH RELATION TO EQUILIBRATION1 BY GEORGE L. STREETER, M.D. Associate, Wistar Institute of Anatomy With Twelve Figures The eventual object of the experiments reported in the following paper was the rearing of some tadpoles which had been deprived of their auditory vesicle and acoustic ganglion, either on one side alone or on both sides; that is to say, an artificial production of a unilateral and bilateral absence of the acoustic apparatus. This was done in the expectation that it might be possible to trace the central acoustic path, in this new way, and perhaps throw further light upon its course and relations. The absence of these sense organs, however, produced such definite abnormalities in the behavior of the growing larvae and in the development of their swim- ming abilities that it became at once apparent that I was dealing with valuable evidence in respect to their function and its bearing on the mechanism of equilibrium. It is, therefore, deemed advisable to restrict the following paper to the physiological features of these experiments, and reserve the study of the central nervous system of the reared specimens for a later communication. What we already know concerning the function of the vertebrate ear is based principally on experimental sectioning or stimula- tion of the semicircular canals, or the nerves to their ampullae, in adult birds and fishes.2 1 Read in part before the Section of Anatomy of the British Medical Association, at the meeting held in Toronto, August 21-25, 1906. 2 For experimental work on fishes we are for the most part indebted to Lee (’93 and ’98) and Lyon (’00), both of whom carried on their experiments at the Woods Hole Laboratories. Further work on fishes has just been completed at the same place by Professor Parker, whose paper I am told is now in press and will appear in the Bulletin of the U. S. Fisheries Bureau. An abstract of part of his work was read before the American Zoological Society (Parker, ’05). A voluminous literature exists . concerning experiments on higher vertebrates, particularly the pigeon, but it need not be considered here.
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