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Jaina Biology
stance it absorbs from the mother's stream of blood is transformed into five sense - organs, etc. But the statement that "tanuyamta 57 (Kidney or small intestine ?) in the adult transforms urine" presupposes the development of kidney as one of the finest and most clear cut examples of recapitulation.
The Jaina Biology's view on the non-functional kidneys suggests that “within the sub-phylum of vertebrates are three different types of kidney : "A man develops first a non-functional pronephros, then a mesonephros, which may be functional during foetal life, and finally the permanent metanephros. The three kidneys develop one after another in both time and space, each new kidney lying posterior to the previous one" 59
“The pronephros, which in the human embryo consists of about seven pairs of rudimentary kidney tubules, develops in the mesoderm and degenerates during the fourth week of embryonic life. From the tubules a pair of ducts grows back to the hindgut and connects with it."60
“The tubules of the mesonephros originate during the fourth week, reach their height at the end of the seventh week, and degenerato by the sixteenth week. These tubules connect with the ducts left by degenereted phronephros, and empty into them. In the female the mesonephros and its ducts degenerate completely except for a few nonfunctional remnants, but in the male some of the tubules remain and are converted into the epididymides, while the ducts become the vas deferens."61 Formation of Lungs (Phopphasaphephas ) :
Jaina Biology does not throw light upon the formation of lungs in the developing foetus, for they are non-functional at this stage, although it refers to the respiration of the foetus at every moment (abhikkhanaṁ usasei abhjkkhanam nisasei)62 through the mother's organ, while developing in her womb. This fact suggests the non57. Biology, p, 442. 58. Tandula Veyaliya 16, p. 35
"Je se taņuyamte teņa pāsavane pariņamei." 59. Biology, p. 443. 60. Ibid. 61. Ibid.
Taodula Veyaliya (7) p. 38. 62. Bhagavati Sūtra 1.7.61 Tandula Veyaliya 4, p. 9-10.
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