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Notice of Observations on the De'celopement of the Seminal 

 Fluid and Organs of Generation in the Crustacea. By 

 Harry D. S. Goodsir, Conservator of the Museum of the 

 Royal College of Surgeons in Edinburgh.* Communicated 

 by the Author. 



Shortly before the male Crustacean comes into season, the generative 

 system is observed to change its appearance very considerably, so as to 

 assume a very different aspect from that which it generally bears. This 

 change is first observed in the testicle itself, which, when inactive, is al- 

 most altogether lost in the folds of the liver. The first change which 

 takes place is in the size of the gland, which is produced by means of the 

 germinal cells, t in each acinus of the gland becoming active, secreting, 

 and filled with small nucleated cells ; this secretion goes on until the 

 germinal cell is quite full, when it bursts and empties itself into the cavity 

 of the acinus. After these small nucleated cells, or, as we shall now 

 term them, *^ secondary cells," have lain in the cavity of the acinus for 

 some time, they also begin to take on an active character as secretive 

 cells, and become in their course downwards towards the vas deferens 

 very much larger and at the sametime filled with young cells. We shall 

 now then follow them in their course from the acinus down to the vas 

 deferens. In the acinus we find the greater number merely increased 

 slightly in size, a considerable number, however, already contain two, 

 three, four, or more cells, and a few are even as large as those found in 

 the epididymis. As we descend and examine the contents of the epi- 

 didymis, which appears in this class of animals to be a kind of receptacle 

 for the proper elimination of these cells, instead of finding a great num- 

 ber of simple nucleated cells, we find it containing, with very few ex- 

 ceptions, parent cells, large, and distended with young ones. We still, 

 however, find a few of these parent cells with only one, two, or more 

 young within them, and others still in the same state as when they left 

 the acinus, from which they had originally been secreted. On descend- 

 ing still farther, and examining the contents of the vas deferens, we will 

 find that these parent cells are all large and distended with young, and 

 some of them even burst, with the young lying scattered around about 

 the empty cell. These cells, however, which burst in the vas deferens 

 axe precocious, although we find examples of it taking place in the epi- 



* Being an abstract of Part I. of Crustacealogical Researches, preparing for 

 publication. 



t On the Ultimate Secreting Structure, and on the Laws of its Functions. By 

 Mr John Goodsir. In the Transac. of the Royal Soc. of Edinburgh, vol. xv. 

 Part ii. 



