FATE OF GERMINAL EPITHELIUM. 143 



breeding." Anderson ('22) has pointed out that sperm are very 

 sensitive to chemical and temperature changes. He was also 

 able to find a few live sperm in the uterus of a mare seven and 

 one fourth hours after breeding; and in hens sperm were found 

 six to eight hours after breeding, but after fifteen hours none 

 could be found. Wolf ('21) was able to keep rabbit sperm alive 

 for nine days by the use of properly balanced physiological saline 

 and iso tonic glucose solution, and the required P h concentration. 

 Many more such references might be cited, but this will serve 

 to show something of the diversity of the results obtained by 

 different workers. Although there is doubtless a great variation 

 in the viability of sperm from different species, doubtless some 

 difference in results are attributable to the environment to which 

 the sperm was subjected. 



In this series of experiments particular attention was paid to 

 the vitality of spermatozoa. When an animal was killed the 

 vasa and epididymi were examined for sperm and where found 

 were tried for notility by adding physiological saline to the 

 contents. As stated above spermatozoa were found alive in the 

 epididymis as long as eight days after both testes were elevated 

 to the abdominal cavity, and closely associated with this there 

 was a strong tendency toward dissociation of the clumps so 

 characteristic of viable guinea pig sperm. To recheck on this 

 very important point five pigs were used. Both testes were 

 elevated to the abdomen, both vasa ligated, the left with a 

 single ligature near the posterior pole, and the right in two places, 

 one near the epididymis and the other one inch below, so that 

 on the right side, the sperm which were in the lumen at the time 

 of operation were not allowed to escape, and no more sperm 

 could enter. When the animals were killed the contents of the 

 epididymi, and of the vasa above, between and below the ligatures 

 were examined and in each case the results were the same. 

 The animals were killed on the 7, 9, 11, 13 and I4th days after 

 operation. In only the first two cases, that is after seven and 

 nine days were motile sperm found, and in these cases no differ- 

 ence in motility could be detected whether the sperm were taken 

 from the region above, between or below the ligatures. In both 

 these cases the motility was accompanied by the clumping 



