THE FATE OF THE GERMINAL EPITHELIUM OF 



EXPERIMENTAL CRYPTORCHID TESTES 



OF GUINEA PIGS. 1 



WALTER LAWRENCE, 



HULL ZOOLOGICAL LABORATORY, 

 THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO. 



The experimental work of Moore and his students on the 

 biology of the testis has yielded many interesting results and 

 has pointed the way to some further analyses of the activities 

 of this organ. Moore ('246) has discussed at some length the 

 reactions in a normal breeding guinea pig testis that has been 

 removed from the scrotum and confined in the abdomen. The 

 germinal epithelium rapidly becomes disorganized, undergoes 

 degeneration, and the contents of the seminiferous tubules are 

 almost completely removed within a very short time. Such a 

 rapid degeneration is not followed by recovery of the generative 

 portion as long as the testis remains in the abdomen; return to 

 the scrotum, however, was followed by recovery to the extent 

 that the testis again produced spermatozoa. This and many 

 other determined facts emphasized the relation between a scrotal 

 position and the germinal content of the organ and has led to 

 the development of the idea that the scrotum is a local tempera- 

 ture regulator for the testes and that such a regulation is necessary 

 for the production of spermatozoa (Moore, '24^; Moore and 

 Quick, '240). 



Despite our general knowledge of the progressive degeneration 

 of a testis placed within the abdomen we yet have much of 

 importance to determine in the ultimate fate of the cells of the 

 germinal line. Are the contents of the epididymis affected in 

 the same manner and as rapidly as those of the seminiferous 

 tubules? How long can spermatozoa be found in the genital 

 passages of cryptorchid testes, and what is the relationship 



1 This investigation has been aided by a grant from the committee on sex 

 research of the National Research Council; grant administered by F. R. Lillie. 

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