George W. Bartelmez (3^ 



help of many a futile attempt; while sucking up the water'"> in whicli 

 the specimen had been immersed, the hillock described above was 

 drawn to the dry central boss at the bottom of the dish, it collapsed 

 and almost distintegrated so that its central poms was dilated in all 

 directions to almost double its own diameter. When I examined it 

 under a lens I was filled with no little wonder as a most exquisite 

 vesicle appeared, free in part, in part adhering to the margin of the 

 porus. Now it ^\as not difficult to separate it and to isolate it com- 

 plete and intact (figs. 5 to g). 



So it is that the poms which appears to penetrate the hillock of the 

 cicatricula is occupied by a very small perfectly clear vesicle which, 

 immersed in a substratum filled with globules, presents only two free 

 surfaces, one toward the external vitelline membrane, the other to- 

 ward the interior of the yolk where at the summit of the hillock it is 

 surrounded by a small crater. 



The relations are nevertheless such that its external surface clings 

 a bit to the vitelline membrane so that it is easily torn when they are 

 separated, whereas on the inner surface a single layer of mutually 

 adherent globules is continued over it from the hillock; so it is that 

 the appearance of an opening [poms] is simulated. 



When you have succeeded in uncovering this vesicle compleiclv 

 you will find that it has the shape of a somewhat flattened sphere cn- 

 l^Sl ^ eloped by a most delicate membrane and containing a perfectly clear 

 watery flidd. Sometimes a fringe of the white material of the hillock 

 persisted in sticking to its lateral periphery but usually a little ma- 

 nipulation completely freed it of this. Traces of adherent vitelline 

 membrane were sometimes to be seen (fig. 8). There was still some 

 question as to whether the vesicle of the hillock grew fast on all sides 

 to the material at the marginal zone and whether the edges of the 

 poms were closed by special membranes. Many observations leave no 

 doubt but that the vesicle is discrete and distinct. 



If one may bring the imagination to the aid of the adroitness of 

 senses and hands I would ventiue the opinion that a membrane [con- 

 sisting of] globules extends from the margin of the poms of the hillock 

 [cumulus] to the periphery of the vesicle and that the membrane is 

 continued all over both the outer and inner hemispherical surfaces 

 of the vesicle, the cuticle of which remains intact. 



So it is that the cicatricula of the ovarian egg has a distinctive and 

 characteristic structure in the form of a somewhat compressed sphe- 

 roidal vesicle which consists of the most delicate of membranelles in- 

 closing a characteristic watery fluid, perchance generative in nature 

 (and so I would call it vesicida germinativa). It is intrenched in a 

 white mammiform hillock composed of globides, perforated at the 

 center [by the poms]. The cimndus is surrounded by a flat whitish 



