Development of the Digestive Canal of the American Alligator | Page 6

it will be described in connection with the next reconstruction where it is figured.
Figure 6 is a surface view in profile of an embryo of the next stage to be studied. The manus and pes are here well developed, and the general development of the embryo is in considerable advancement over the last stage studied.
Figure 6A represents a reconstruction, from a series of transverse sections, of the enteron of an embryo of about the age of the one shown in figure 6. The outlines of the entire embryo, of the eye, e, and of the anterior, aa, and posterior, pa, appendages are shown by broken lines. Its position being coincident with that of the stomach, liver, and pancreas, the anterior appendage can scarcely be seen. The enteron, including one lung only, for the sake of simplicity, is shaded solid black, while the liver and pancreas, with their ducts, are outlines with unbroken lines. As in the preceding reconstruction no attempt is made to show the gill clefts, and only the dorso-ventral profile of the enteron is shown. Caudad to the pharynx, the enteron being more or less cylindrical in section, this profile gives a good idea of its shape, but in the pharyngeal region, where the lateral diameter is so much greater than the dorso-ventral, the reconstruction gives but a poor idea of the size of that part of the enteron.
The widely-open mouth, m, leads, with no line of demarkation, into the pharynx, ph, which is of irregular outline and, as has been said, of much greater lateral than dorso-ventral diameter.
The pharynx becomes gradually constricted to form the oesophagus, oe, a very long and slender structure, which, as will be seen in cross section, is, at this stage, solid for the greater part of its length. As in the case of the pharynx, the lateral diameter of the oesophagus is generally greater than the dorso-ventral diameter.
From the floor of the caudal part of the pharynx is pushed out the trachea, ta. In the reconstruction, especially in the anterior end, the trachea appears several times the diameter of the oesophagus; this is due to the great thickness and indefiniteness of its walls rather than to a greater diameter of its lumen.
At about the position of the line ta the trachea divides into the two bronchi (only one shown in the figure), which are somewhat enlarged at the ends to form the lung rudiments, lu. While the trachea and bronchi lie ventrad to the oesophagus, the lungs lie laterad and even dorsad to the oesophagus and cardiac end of the stomach. Caudad to the heart and in the region of the anterior appendages, aa, the oesophagus suddenly enlarges to form the stomach, i��, which has now quite the outline of the typical human stomach.
From the stomach the duodenum, d, extends, following a sort of V-shaped course, towards the yolk-stalk, ys. In the region of the yolk-stalk it is somewhat enlarged and ends in a blind sac like a caecum. At the side of this sac is seen the opening of the enteron to the yolk-stalk; the anterior and posterior intestinal portals are not distinguishable from each other. From this point the hindgut, hg, extends cephalad until it lies laterad to the middle region of the duodenum, then bends through 180�� and extends, in an almost straight line, to the cloaca, cl, lying in the region of the posterior appendage, pa.
The allantois, al, extends cephalad for some distance from the floor of the cloaca. Some distance caudad to the cloaca, near the end of the much coiled tail, is seen the post-anal gut, pag. This structure as has been noted above, is quite distinct from the other parts of the enteron. It is of elongated, pyriform outline, with the pointed end extending cephalad.
In the narrow space between the stomach and the duodenum is the elongated pancreas, pan, opening by two or more short ducts into the duodenum.
The liver, li, in the figure under discussion, has about twice the area of the stomach. It extends caudad and dorsal about the same distance as the latter organ, but it extends ventrad and cephalad far beyond the boundaries of the stomach.
Extending along the ventral border of the liver is a long narrow duct, apparently the bile duct, bd. It connects, caudally, with the anterior end of the pancreas, while at its other extremity, near the antero-ventral corner of the liver; it ends blindly.
The transverse sections now to be described have been selected from the series from which the reconstruction, just described, was made.
Figure 6B represents a typical section through the pharynx. Its plane is approximately shown by the line 400 of figure 6A though the plane apparently does not cut the eye, e. The pharynx, ph, has here the outline of an irregular V. Its walls,