64 Translation from Purkinje 



zonule which is then continued into the layer of globules, referred to 

 above, which invests the inner surface of the vitelline membrane. It 

 may be added that the cicatricula is so closely applied to the inner 

 surface of the vitelline membrane that the two always remain in con- 

 tact when separated from the yolk. 



The distinction between the cicatricula of 

 ovarian ovules, oviducal eggs and laid eggs. 



My overhasty imagination [imaginatio praecox] was already divin- 

 ing that this vesicle was tenanted by the female germ from which the 

 chick in its turn would develop. The next thing then was to investi- 

 gate with the utmost care the cicatricula of a recently laid egg before 

 there had been any incubation whatever, to see what transformation 

 our vesicle had undergone in it. 



An entirely new state of affairs was found here since the cicatricula 

 [^ 4 ] of the newly laid egg does not stick to the vitelline membrane although 

 that of the ovarian egg separates from it with difficulty. On the other 

 hand, the cicatricula of the latter is easily separated from the under- 

 lying yolk while that of the laid egg is closely attached to the yolk. 

 Furthermore, the zona of the cicatricula of the ovarian egg is still 

 thin and in closer relation to the colliculus where the formative sub- 

 stance is gathered, as it were; however in the cicatricula of the laid 

 as well as of the oviducal egg, everything is spread out diffusely to all 

 sides, the colliculus has already been dissolved, the semi-transparent 

 blastoderm is everywhere uniform in thickness, nor is there any trace 

 of the vesicle to be found. The cicatricula of the fully formed egg takes 

 the form of a double circle, of which the outer is fused to the yolk, 

 the inner, which is continuous with it, is separated from the yolk by a 

 shallow little fossa (perchance Malpighi's "colliquamentum")."' This 

 circular little fossa persists in the yolk and presents at its center a 

 whitish knob (^nucleus of Pander) covered with a viscid semi-trans- 

 parent substance through which white farinaceous granules are scat- 

 tered. Similar granules also besprinkle the inner surface except at the 

 center (fig. 1 1) which rests upon [Pander's] nucleus but does not stick 

 to it. This central part of the blastoderm is so semi-translucent that 

 the darker region of the fossa has a leaden color while the nucleus 

 shimmers white (figs. 9-11)- It would seem therefore that the vesicle 

 of the ovarian egg had burst in the laid egg and had been converted 

 into a fluid [colliquamentum]. 



It was still [necessary] to investigate the cicatricula, while the egg 

 was in the uterus, and while the yolk still remained in the oviduct. In 

 the former I have found the same conditions as in the laid egg. But in 



