Regeneration / by Thomas Hunt Morgan.

  • Thomas Hunt Morgan
Date:
1901
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Regeneration / by Thomas Hunt Morgan. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    relation to the animal as a whole, but in a longitudinal direction in regard to the limb itself. Lateral regeneration of the limb would take place if the limb was split lengthwise into two parts and one of the parts removed. If the entire salamander were cut in two length- wise, each half would most certainly die without regeneration, if for no other reason than that the integrity of the median organs is necessary for the life of the different parts. If, however, a planarian is cut lengthwise into a right and left half, each piece will complete itself laterally and make a new worm (Fig. 13 J, A-D). Even a narrow piece cut from the side will produce a new worm by regenerating laterally, as shown in Fig. 19, a, c. In hydra, also, a half-longi- tudinal piece produces a new animal, but in this case not by the addition of new material at the side, but by the cut-edges meeting to make a tube of smaller diameter. Subsequently the piece changes its form into that characteristic of hydra. REGENERATION OF TERMINAL PORTIONS OF THE BODY In most of the preceding examples the behavior of the larger piece of the two that result from the operation has been described ; but there are some important facts in connection with the regeneration of the smaller end-pieces. The leg, or the tail, that has been cut from the salamander soon dies without regenerating. The life of the leg can be maintained only when the part is supplied with certain substances from the body of the animal. It does not follow, of course, that, could the leg or the tail be kept alive, they would regenerate a salamander. In fact, there is evidence to show, in the tail at least, that, although it may regenerate a structure at its anterior end, the structure is not a salamander, but something else. This has been definitely shown in certain experiments with the tail of the tadpole. It is possible to graft the tail of one tadpole in a reversed position, i.e. with its anterior end free, on the tail of another tadpole (Fig. 54, A-D)y or even on other parts of the body. Regeneration takes place from the free end, z.e. from the proximal end of the grafted tail. The new structure resembles a tail, and not a tadpole. If it be objected that the experiment is not conclusive because of the presence of the old tail, or of the use of the newly developing part, the objec- tion can be met by another experiment. If, as shown in Fig. 56, A, a triangular piece is cut out of the base of the tail of a young tadpole, the cut being made so deep that the nerve-cord and notochord are cut in two, there develops from the proximal end of the tail a new tail-like structure that is turned forward, or sometimes laterally. In this case the objections to the former experiment do not apply, and the same sort of a structure, namely, a tail, is produced.