EFFECTS OF AGING UPON GERM CELLS. 3 



Agglutination sometimes occurred in freshly liberated eggs. 

 But in every such instance when suitably tested, as described in 

 Study I. and II., they were found to be in poor physiologic condi- 

 tion. Thus in experiment I, agglutination was observed in one 

 female, 9 minutes after the liberation of her eggs, in another, 29 

 minutes after liberation. But these eggs, in spite of their fresh- 

 ness, were in very poor physiologic condition. 



Agglutination of the eggs of different females of an experi- 

 ment often began at very different ages, depending upon the 

 physiologic condition of the eggs when liberated. The more 

 deteriorated the eggs, the earlier the agglutination. For example, 

 the eggs of female I, in experiment I, first agglutinated in 9 

 minutes, female 3 in 29 minutes, female 2 in 225 minutes. 

 These eggs were all in varying degrees of poor physiologic 

 condition, those of female 4 which were in good physiologic con- 

 dition did not agglutinate in the 309 minutes that the eggs were 

 under observation. In experiment 3, the eggs of female 3 did 

 not agglutinate until 8^ hours old, and the eggs of females 

 I and 2 first agglutinated when six hours old. In experiment 4, 

 the eggs of female i and 2 first agglutinated when 2^2 hours old, 

 female 5 and 6, when 8% hours old; female 3 did not agglutinate 

 in the n hours under observation, etc. 



Once begun, agglutinations were observed throughout the re- 

 mainder of the experiment. I am not certain to what extent 

 there was, with increasing age, an increase in the number of 

 agglutinated clusters, and to what extent there was an increase 

 in the number of eggs to each cluster. Both kinds of increases 

 took place in experiment I, 2, 3, 4, etc. ( Toxopnuestes] , experi- 

 ment 14 (Hipponoe) and experiment 17 (Arbacia), etc. 



Agglutination occurred in fertilized as well as in unfertilized 

 eggs, and in both groups each of the eggs in the cluster developed 

 in a normal manner. The later regulations and the different 

 types of larvae resulting from such clusters I have elsewhere de- 

 scribed in detail (Goldfarb, '13, '15). For the present I merely 

 wish to emphasize the fact that agglutination took place long be- 

 fore the death and before extreme deterioration of the eggs. 



Agglutination was independent of the age or physiologic 

 condition of the sperm. Eggs in suitable condition agglutinated 



