THE TEMPORARY CONCENTRATION OF SEA-SALTS 

 ABOUT ARBACIA EGGS. 



OTTO GLASER.i 



I. INTRODUCTION. 



If the precipitates prepared by Miss Woodward 2 and myself 3 

 have been correctly understood, Lillie's hypothetical fertilizin 4 

 is a mixture of at least two chemical entities. On this view, 

 therefore, we cannot assume that the sperm-agglutination test, 

 however reliable for agglutinin, is necessarily also a measure 

 of the concentration of the associated lipolysin. The ratio 



agglutinin , 



, may of course be a constant; yet we cannot know this 



lipolysin 



until we find out. 



With this problem in mind, I began, last summer, to search for 

 other methods ; the ideal being some convenient procedure which 

 would eliminate the physiological variables and leave to the ob- 

 server nothing except a reading. Experiments on specific gravity, 

 surface tension and viscosity naturally suggested themselves. 

 Changes in one or all of these properties of sea-water might be 

 expected as exudate leaves the eggs and becomes distributed in 

 the solvent. Such changes, plus or minus, should stand, within 

 certain limits, in some direct or inverse relationship with the 

 concentration of the organic constituents of the secretion. A 

 comparison of such values with results gotten by the sperm- 

 agglutination test for the same secretions and for solutions of 

 precipitated agglutinin having the same specific gravity, surface 

 tension, or viscosity, could then be used to throw light on the ratio 

 agglutinin 

 lipolysin 



1 From the Biological Laboratory of Amherst College, Amherst, Mass. 



2 Woodward, A. E., Studies on the Physiological Significance of Certain 

 Precipitates from the Egg-Secretions of Arbacia and Asterias. J. Exp. Zool., 

 Vol. 26, p. 459. 



s Glaser, O., The Duality of Egg-Secretion. Am. Nat., Vol. LV., p. 368. 

 4Lillie, F. R., The Mechanism of Fertilization. Science, Vol. XXXVIII, 

 P- 524- 



175 



