THE ANNALS 



AND 



MAGAZINE OF NATURAL HISTORY, 



[SECOND SERIES.] 

 No. 100. APRIL 1856. 



XXIV. — On the Theory of the Fecundation of the Ovum, 

 By E. Claparede*. 



One of the first discoveries which followed the invention of the 

 microscope, or at all events one of those which made the most 

 noise in the world, was the discovery by Ludwig von Hammen 

 of the sperraatozoids in the seminal fluid. This was the com- 

 mencement of a new sera in the physiology of fecundation, an 

 sera however which must unfortunately be characterized rather 

 by the accumulation of fruitless theories, than by the discovery 

 of a great number of facts. These spermatozoids, these mobile 

 particles of the animal semen, were at first raised to the rank of 

 independent beings, as spermatic animalcula, and although their 

 title to this place in the series of beings is nowadays pretty 

 generally disputed, this antiquated opinion is still far from 

 being completely banished from the domain of science. The 

 theories took their course, and Gautin did not hesitate to attri- 

 bute to the animalcula of the human semen, the actual figure of 

 Homo sapiens. Others made them penetrate into the ova and 

 form the embryo. Andry f, mixing poetry with matters with 

 which it had nothing to do, related how each spermatozoid 

 arrives in the ovary and penetrates into the e^^, by passing 

 through a little door, vtrhich it pulls after it and shuts with the 

 assistance of its tail. He even went so far as to represent these 

 little creatures engaging in sanguinary combats at the door of 

 the ovum, and disputing each other^s right of entrance with such 

 determination that many lost their arms and legs. Hence arise 



* Translated from the Bibliotheque Universelle de Geneve for August 

 1855, p. 284, by W. S. Dallas, F.L.S. 



t See Vallisneri, Istoria della Generazione dell' Uomo e degU Animali. 

 1721. 



Ann. ^ Mag, N. Hist. Ser. 2. Vol.xw'ii, 19 



