2O4 EDWIN J. COHN. 



tinating "egg water" 1 have been successively studied by E. von 

 Dungern (1901) and (1902); A. Schiicking (1903) J. De Meyer 

 (1911); F. R. Lillie (1912, 1913, I9H> 1915); H. M. Fuchs (1915); 

 Jacques Loeb (1914, 1915) ; Otto Glaser (1913, 1914) ; A. Richards 

 and A. E. Woodward (1915) and A. E. Woodward (1915). Each 

 investigator has conceived the function of the "egg water" and 

 its importance in the fertilization process to be different. It is 

 not the purpose of the present communication to consider the 

 function of the "egg water" (although that is a problem of great 

 biological interest) but the behavior of the spermatozoon, and 

 it has been possible to repeat and to explain many of the seeming- 

 ly contradictory observations of different investigators on the 

 effect of "egg water" upon the fertilizing power and upon the 

 length of life of spermatozoa. 



The effect of "egg water" upon spermatozoa as was clearly 

 shown in the admirable investigation of Schiicking depends upon 

 the relative concentration of egg water and sperm ; upon the abso- 

 lute concentration of each; and upon the length of time during 

 which sperm are allowed to remain in the egg water. Schiicking 

 observed that: "Die sauer reagirende Eimasse iibt bei den genann- 

 ten Echinodermen eine todtliche, bei kurzer Dauer der Ein- 

 wirkung lahmende, in geringer Menge agglutinirende bezw. 

 erregende und anlockende Wirkung auf Spermien der eigenen 

 und fremden Art aus" (Schiicking, A., 1903, p. 91). 



In a more complete analysis of the phenomenon of activation 

 and agglutination F. R. Lillie (1913) showed that if "egg water' 1 

 is added to a sperm suspension the activity of the spermatozoa 

 is greatly increased. One of the manifestations of this increased 

 activity is the "agglutination" phenomenon. According to 

 Gray "if a drop or tw T o of a very weak solution of cerous chloride 

 is added to a suspension of Arbacia sperm in sea water the sper- 

 matozoa become intensely active, and rapidly aggregate into 

 clumps" (Gray, J., 1915, p. 123). This may possibly be (Lillie, 

 F. R., 1915, p. 20) what Lillie now calls "mass coagulation," 

 which was described by Loeb in 1904 (Loeb, J., 1904) and is 

 favored not only by increase in the hydroxyl ion concentration 



1 The distilled water "extract" of Echinid eggs has been found to possess many 

 of the properties of the "egg water." 



