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Asexual and Sexual Reproduction
245
“The embryonic heart, when it first appears is a single structure with only one of each chamber, whereas the adult heart is a double pump, with separate right and left, atria and ventricles.
The heart begins separating into four chambers at an early stage. The two ventricles are completely separated but complete separation does not occur until after birth, when the oval window between them finally closes.'*51
Development of the Digestive Tract:
It is suggestive from the reference to the taking of food by the foetus through diffusion,52 but not through mouth, that the digestive tract of the foetal child is first formed as separate foregut and hindgut by the growth and folding of the body wall.53 Modern Biology explains that this body wall "cuts the foregut and hindgut off as two simple tubes from the original yolk sac. These tubes grow as the rest of the embryo grows, becoming greatly elongated."
“The mouth cavity arises as a shallow pocket of ectoderm which grows in to meet the anterior end of the foregut ; the membrane between the two ruptures and disappears during the fifth week of development. Similarly the anus is formed from an ectodermal pocket which grows in to meet the hindgut; the membrane separating these two disappears early in the third mouth of development”.55
The Development of the Kidney
The development of the Kidney (taṇuyamta ?)55/a is one of the finest and most clear cut examples of the principle of recapitulation” according to Modern Biology.56 There is no clear mention of the formation of kidney in the embryonic development in Jaina Biology, probably because of its non-function in this stage. It is stated that the foetus does not pass urine, while developing, for whatever food - sub
51. Biology p. 441. 52. Ibid, p. 441. 53. "Jive pam gabbhagae samáne no pahü muhenam Kavaliyam ahāram āhärittae?
..... savvao ähärei savvao pariņāmci abhikkhanam āhārei abbikkhanarn
pariņamei/", Bhagavati Sūtra 1 7.61. : Tandula Veyaliya 4, p. 7. 54. Biology p..441 55. Biology, p. 441. 55/a Ibid p. 442. 56. Tandula Veyaliya, 16, p. 35
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