Henry Gray (1825–1861). Anatomy of the Human Body. 1918.
pages 734
| or young nerve cells (Fig. 641). The spongioblasts are at first connected to one another by filaments of the syncytium; in these, fibrils are developed, so that as the neuroglial cells become defined they exhibit their characteristic mature appearance with multiple processes proceeding from each cell. The germinal cells are large, round or oval, and first make their appearance between the ependymal cells on the sides of the central canal. They increase rapidly in number, so that by the fourth week they form an almost continuous layer on each side of the tube. No germinal cells are found in the roof- or floor-plates; the roof-plate retains, in certain regions of the brain, its epithelial character; elsewhere, its cells become spongioblasts. By subdivision the germinal cells give rise to the neuroblasts or young nerve cells, which migrate outward from the sides of the central canal into the mantle layer and neural crest, and at the same time become pear-shaped; the |