dots-menu
×

Home  »  Anatomy of the Human Body  »  pages 70

Henry Gray (1825–1861). Anatomy of the Human Body. 1918.

pages 70

maxillary and nasal processes in the roof of the stomodeum the primitive palate (Fig. 49) is formed, and the olfactory pits extend backward above it. The posterior end of each pit is closed by an epithelial membrane, the bucco-nasal membrane, formed by the apposition of the nasal and stomodeal epithelium. By the rupture of these membranes the primitive choanæ or openings between the olfactory pits and the stomodeum are established. The floor of the nasal cavity is completed by the development of a pair of shelf-like palatine processes which extend medial-ward from the maxillary processes (Figs. 50 and 51); these coalesce with each other in the middle line, and constitute the entire palate, except a small part in front which is formed by the premaxillary bones. Two apertures persist for a time between the palatine processes and the premaxillæ and represent the permanent channels which in the lower animals connect the nose and mouth. The union of the parts which form the palate commences in front, the premaxillary and palatine processes joining in the eighth week, while the region of the future hard palate is completed by the ninth, and that of the soft palate by the eleventh week. By the completion of the palate the permanent choanæ are formed and are situated a considerable distance behind the primitive choanæ. The deformity known as cleft palate results from a non-union of the palatine processes, and that of harelip through a non-union of the maxillary and globular processes (see page 199). The nasal cavity becomes divided by a vertical septum, which extends downward and backward from the medial nasal process and nasal laminæ, and unites below with the palatine processes. Into this septum a plate of cartilage extends from the under aspect of the ethmoid plate of the chodrocranium. The anterior part of this cartilaginous plate persists as the septal cartilage of the nose and the medial crus of the alar cartilage, but the posterior and upper parts are replaced by the vomer and perpendicular plate of the ethmoid. On either side of the nasal septum, at its lower and anterior part, the ectoderm is invaginated to form a blind pouch or diverticulum, which extends backward and upward into the nasal septum and is supported by a curved plate of cartilage. These pouches form the rudiments of