194 MAYNIE R. CURTIS. 



In this case also it is apparent that a normal distinctly pointed 

 hard-shelled egg was forced back up the duct without reversing 

 its poles. The question of where, the direction was again re- 

 versed is less easily decided. The fact that the pointed half is 

 not covered with membrane suggests that it was forced only 

 half way into the isthmus, this would not account for the presence 

 of thick albumen in the cap and stalk. While Pearl and Curtis 

 (13) have shown that albumen is secreted in the isthmus and 

 uterus, they have seen no evidence of as thick gelatinous an 

 albumen as that found in this egg outside of the albumen- 

 secreting region. It would seem that the egg had been forced 

 back part way into the albumen-secreting region and had either 

 stimulated the formation of albumen or had met a stalked dwarf 

 egg coming down. Why in this case membrane was not formed 

 around the whole enclosed egg is difficult to say. While it is 

 possible that some albumen is necessary to cause the secretion 

 of an egg membrane, case 9 above and two cases described in 

 an earlier paper (4) have shown an egg membrane closely applied 

 to a hard-shelled or a membrane-cohered egg with no visible 

 albumen between them. 



Another peculiarity of this egg is the position of the stalk. 

 Stalked eggs while infrequent are a well-known type of abnormal 

 eggs. The stalk is usually continued straight in the long axis 

 of the egg. Sometimes it is more or less coiled or crushed down 

 onto the blunt pole of the egg and sometimes in this position it 

 becomes covered with shell and forms a projection more or less 

 resembling a snail shell. How pressure from behind could cause 

 the straight folding down seen in specimen 10 is hard to imagine. 

 If the egg immediately on entering the uterus had its poles re- 

 versed in the manner described on page 191 this position of the 

 stalk would be the natural result. If this is the explanation, 

 the reversal of poles must have occurred before the shell was 

 formed. The egg must then have remained in the uterus for 

 some time before it was laid. 



(&) The Enclosed Egg Was a Divarf Egg in Specimens n, 12, 13, 



14, 15 and 16. 



Specimen u was a soft-shelled dwarf egg which weighed n.i 

 grams. When this egg was opened it was found to contain a 



