ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MICROSCOPY, ETC. 291 



was hypertrophied, and all the external characters of an entire animal 

 were exhibited, that the development of the secondary sex characters 

 is dependent on the condition of the interstitial testicular gland. 



Interstitial Testicular Gland.* — P. Bourn and P. Ancel cut the 

 vas deferens between two ligatures in young guinea-pigs and rabbits. 

 In the former the testes developed normally ; in the latter, in some 

 cases, the characters of castrated animals were exhibited. This last 

 result was probably due to the destruction of the plexus, whose ramifi- 

 cations accompany the vas deferens. Noteworthy in these rabbits was 

 the degeneration of the interstitial testicular gland, and the authors 

 believe that the inhibition of masculine characters and the production 

 of testicular infantilism is due to the absence or degeneracy of this 

 gland. 



Relation of Secondary Sexual Characters to an Internal Secre- 

 tion by the Testicle.j— S. G. Shattock and C. G. Seligmann record the 

 results of some experiments on Herdwick sheep and common fowls, 

 which were designed to test the suggestion previously made by one of 

 them, that the interstitial cells of the testis yielded an internal secretion, 

 and to discover whether this secretion, absorbed into the circulation, 

 induces the metabolic changes that reveal themselves as secondary 

 sexual characters. The experiments consisted in ligaturing the vasa 

 deferentia in the young, the expectation (not confirmed) being that 

 atrophy due to the pressure of the products would result in the tubuli, 

 while the interstitial cells of the stroma might remain intact. The 

 conclusions arrived at are that occlusion of the vasa does not inhibit 

 the full acquirement of secondary male characters, nor is the discharge 

 of the sperm necessary. It seems clear also that they are not due to 

 metabolic changes set up by a nervous reflex arising out of the mere 

 physical function of the sexual mechanism, for the characters developed 

 in males, partially castrated, whose sole representative of testis consisted 

 of grafts entirely disconnected from their proper nervous relations. 

 The suggestion of an internal secretion of the testis is confirmed, 

 although the authors cannot as yet state what particular cell elements 

 are concerned in its production. 



- Testicle and Spermatic Ducts of Lemurs in Captivity 4 — A. 

 Branca states that amongst animals in captivity it is not rare to find 

 a stoppage of spermatogenesis in full-sized testicles. As a result of his 

 investigations on captive lemurs he has found that the seminiferous 

 canaliculi are as wide as usual, the wall shows none of the alterations 

 observed in ectopia, the connective tissue is not hypertrophied, and there 

 are no vascular lesions. The excurrent ducts are normal, but the gland 

 cannot make spermatozoa. He finds four conditions : (1) with epi- 

 thelial covering represented by cells of Sertoli only ; (2) with Sertoli 

 cells and spermatogonia ; (3) the elements represented in second type- 

 plus spermatocytes of first and second generation ; and (4) with the 

 elements present in third type plus spermatids, and with spermatic cord 



* Comptes Rendus, exxxviii. (1904) pp. 231-2. 



t Proc. Roy. Soc, lxxiii. (1904) pp. 49-58. 



t Journ. Anat. Physiol., xL (1904) pp. 35-72 (2 pis.,. 



