62 Translation from Purkinje 



egg. The ovarian ovule is known to have two membranes which con- 

 stitute the calyx. The outer membrane is thin but quite firm and in 

 continuity with the abdominal air sacs. It leads blood vessels to and 

 from the egg by way of its petiole and surrounds the inner [membrane] 

 with a loose areolar tissue except where it is firmly fused to it. This 

 [inner one] is somewhat thicker; the terminal branches of the vessels 

 are on its outer and rougher surface, its inner surface is woolly and 

 dotted with equally spaced blood vessels. 



Next comes the cuticle belonging to the yolk which is exceedingly 

 delicate and closely invests the yolk and its cicatricula. As a whole the 

 ovarian egg is a bit elongate as it approaches maturity and a trifle 

 flattened out on two sides, corresponding in form to the opening of 

 the infundibulum of the oviduct. The smaller ovules approach the 

 spherical in form; the smallest protrude barely half way from the 

 covering of the ovary and resemble a miliary skin eruption. 



The cicatricula (Hahnentritt) is a distinctive feature of one or an- 

 other part of the egg, lying more often nearer the petiole than the 

 stigma; although I have found it even under the petiole or directly 

 under the stigma, it was never at the ends; otherwise it w^ould be cov- 

 ered by a chalaza when the yolk is propelled in the direction of its 

 long axis along the beginning of the oviduct.'"* I have always found 

 the inner surface of the vitelline membrane covered with a very thin 

 uniform layer of globules which have the size and shape of [red] 

 blood corpuscles under the microscope, though they are clearer and 

 also arranged in an organized fashion, not haphazardly jumbled. 

 Globules of this sort are heaped up about the cicatricula to form a 

 zone around about it more than i/g a line in width."' Within this there 

 [| 2 ] is a teat-like whitish hillock of similar globules, almost two lines 

 across, extending toward the interior of the yolk (figs, i to 4). At 

 the summit of the hillock [that is, superficially] the so-called poms 

 pelhicidus^" is to be seen both from the upper and the lower surfaces 

 of the cicatricula. It appears perfectly circular and has a diameter of 

 about Yq of a line. This porus is not to be found in the cicatricula of 

 [full] grown"' eggs nor in the cicatricula of eggs within uterus or ovi- 

 duct. Nor have I found in the literature that any distinction has been 

 made between the cicatricula of the egg and that of mature ovarian 

 ovules. Hence I judged this matter sufficiently important to justify 

 more careful study. 



So under a simple lens of one-and-a-half line focus I undertook to 

 break up the teat-like hillock with steel needles, working toward the 

 center so as to come at the porus pelhicidiis. Nothing came of many 

 attempts except the tearing of the most delicate of pellicles which in- 

 closes a clear fluid. One could infer rather than know with certainty 

 that it approaches the globular in form. Chance finally came to the 



