STUDIES IN THE PHYSIOLOGY OF SPERMATOZOA. 



I8 7 



carbon dioxide production of the spermatozoa in the latter case 

 was not so much inhibited. The life of the sperm suspension 

 was, therefore, shortened. 



TABLE VI. 



THE RELATION BETWEEN THE LENGTH OF LIFE OF A CONCENTRATED SPERM SUS- 

 PENSION AND THE RATE AT WHICH THE CARBON DIOXIDE PRODUCED 

 BY SPERMATOZOA DIFFUSES FROM THE SUSPENSION. 



Experiment 214. 



(2^) Increasing the Rate of Neutralization of Carbon Dioxide. 



When a mixture of a weak acid and its salt, isohydric with sea 

 water, is added to sea water, a series of solutions is obtained that 

 tend increasingly to maintain the reaction of the sea water. 

 The carbon dioxide produced by spermatozoa or other organisms 

 changes the hydrogen ion and the carbon dioxide concentration 

 of such solutions the less, the greater the concentration of weak 

 acids. 



In the experiments to be reported mixtures of borax and boric 

 acid were used (Palitzsch, 1914). It is, of course, necessary that 

 neither the weak acid nor the salts of the weak acid that are 



1 Fertilization was seen to be practically complete and the percentage of eggs 

 cleaving was only estimated. 



