COMPARATIVE PHYSIOLOGY OF THE VERTEBRATE HYPOPHYSIS (ANTERIOR AND INTERMEDIATE LOBES)
This extract was created in the absence of an abstract.
Excerpt
Morphologically, a hypophyseal gland is found in all vertebrates. It seems not unlikely that it has its homologue in some invertebrates also. A pouch forming in the roof plate of the mouth of metamorphosing larvae of Balanoglossus resembles closely the early stage of the hypophysis of vertebrates, commonly called Rathke's pouch. The “hypophyseal canal” of ascidian larvae which gives rise to the “subneural gland” of the adult has been compared with the hypophysis of the vertebrates. Abramowitz (1936) has extracted from this organ a chromatophorotropic hormone which physiologically resembles the pigmentary hormones of the intermediate lobe of mammalian hypophyses, as well as those extracted from eye stalks of crustaceans. No hypophysis-like structure has been identified in Amphioxus; its acraniate organization would necessitate a rather unusual location of the organ. Special attention is deserved by the corpora allata of the insects, which according to the work of Wigglesworth (1934) and Weed...
