306 THE PHYSIOLOGY OF REPRODUCTION 



The significance of the presence of hist ones in the spermatozoa of 

 s..ii* fishes becomes more apparent if tlie development of the sexual 



MS is considered. 



It was Miescher who pointed out that in the salmon the sexual 

 organs develop at the excuse of the muscular system and that the 

 sahnine deposited in the testis during the breeding season must l>e 

 derived from the proteins of the muscle, since the fish does not 

 take any food during that jieriod. A comparison between the 

 amount of arginine present in sahnine and that present in the 

 muscle of the salmon, shows 1 that all the arginine deposited as 

 salmine during the hreeding season can he accounted for by the 

 arginine which leeomes available by the involution of the muscular 

 elements. 



This result would suggest that the formation of salmine is not 

 due to a profound chemical alteration of the various constituents 

 of the muscle-proteins, transforming the divers substances into 

 arginine, but rather to a gradual enrichment in arginine of the 

 muscle-piotein by the splitting off of a numl>er of the other con- 

 stituent substances. 



The investigation of the unripe spermatozoa of the salmon 2 and 

 of the mackerel 3 has shown indeed that instead of a protamine a 

 histone is present, i.e. a substance which represents the transition 

 stage letween the typical proteins and the protarnines. 



It would appear, therefore, that in the fishes the chemical 

 processes which lead to the formation of the spermatozoa consist of a 

 rearrangement of the constituents of the proteins of somatic tissue, 

 so that a gradual accumulation of the basic substances rich in 

 nitrogen takes place. This change leads at first to the formation of 

 histones, and in some species stops here. In the majority of cases 

 the change proceeds to the formation of substances belonging to 

 the protamines. 



In some Invertebrates (Arbacia p-ustulosd* Spha'rechinus grcinu- 

 /"//.s v ) the spermatozoa have been investigated and histones have 

 been found to l>e present. 



Of' the higher Vertebrates, the spermatozoa of the frog, the cock, 



vol. lii.. 1907. 



1 Mieacher, "Physiologisch-Chemische Untersuchungen Uber die Lachsmilch," 

 Uuto>-hemi*cl,e Arbeiten, Archiv f. E.i-f^enm-ntelle I'atholoqie a. Phannakdoqie. 

 vol. xxxvii., 1896-97. 



3 Bang (I.), "Studien uber Histon," Zeit#*/i. f. p/ t ,/gM. Chem., vol. xxvii., 1899. 



1 Mathewa, "Zur Chemie der Spermatozoen." Zeitsch. f. phi/sid. Chem., 

 *o . 



. 



4 Kosael, " Cher die einfachsteu Eiweisskoi-per," Biochemische* Centralblatt, 

 vol. v., 1906-07. 



