Regeneration in polychœrus caudatus. Part I. Observations on living material
✍ Scribed by Stevens, N. M. ;Boring, A. M.
- Book ID
- 102888396
- Publisher
- John Wiley and Sons
- Year
- 1905
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 735 KB
- Volume
- 2
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0022-104X
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
✦ Synopsis
While enjoying the hospitality of the Hopkins Seaside Laboratory at Pacific Grove, Cal., the past summer, I made a few experiments to test the powers of regeneration of the red acelous flatworm, Polychmrus caudatus, which abounds there in shallow tide-pools on the underside of stones and shells and on Ulva.
T h e object of the experiments was a comparison of the regeneration of this form which has no definitely differentiated organseyes, central nervous system, pharynx, etc.-with the more highly organized fresh-water Planarians, as well as with the results of Schultz ('02) and Child ('04) on Leptoplana and other marine forms which show very incomplete anterior regeneration.
Method.
I n most of the experiments, the worms were cut into three nearly equal parts as in Fig. A, a-b, c-d. These parts will be spoken of as head-pieces, middle-pieces and tail-pieces. T h e material was kept in covered glass dishes, somewhat shaded, and the sea-water was changed morning and evening.
Regeneration in general was much slower than in fresh-water Planarians. T h e animals are very sluggish normally, and the pieces moved but little even when disturbed by changing the water, the head-pieces, however, being much more active than the middle-pieces and tail-pieces. T h e tail-pieces continued to deposit eggs for several days as freely as did the entire worms, and the eggs developed normally.