404 



A. J. GOLDFARB. 



in membrane formation and reduction in cleavage was clearly 

 due to the poor physiologic condition of the sperm. The eggs of 

 the fifth female were likewise fertilized by this male and showed 

 the same size and jelly count as before, but no membrane 

 appeared and only 4 per cent, cleaved. By these tests it was 

 definitely determined that the eggs of the first four females were 

 in good physiologic condition, those of the fifth female in poor 

 condition. 



By these tests it is possible to state accurately whether any 

 sample of eggs are "good," "poor" or "bad," and to state 

 exactly to what degree of physiologic deterioration such sample 

 of eggs may have reached. The words "good," "poor "or "bad" 

 now have a specific meaning, in terms of definite measurable 

 changes in size, loss of jelly, rate of membrane formation and 

 cleavage, which changes symptomize and measure definite physi- 

 ologic and morphologic changes in the eggs. 



The freshly liberated eggs whose physiologic condition was 

 determined, subsequently changed or aged or overripened, with 

 respect to the same categories, namely, size, jelly layer, membrane 

 and cleavage. 



I have shown in this paper exactly the extent to which each of 

 these categories varied with the aging of the germ cells. I wish 

 now to emphasize the fact that the changes are correlated. 



These correlated changes, each of which measures the degree 

 of physiologic deterioration with age, may be briefly summarized 

 in the following table : 



Whatever the physiologic condition of the eggs when liberated, 

 they undergo with age an increase in size, a decrease in the number 



