George W. Bartelmez >nc, 



and its fimbriae easily prove that they arc not inert at this lime when 

 they embrace the ovule by licking it on all sides. 



As I understand the situation, it is as follows: The mouili ol the 

 infundibulum is dilated by its longitudinal muscles and it takes up 

 the ovum in its entirety, the fimbriae on the other hand are wrinkled 

 by the fibrillae which run down the sagi tally directed infundibular 

 margins and are constricted about the stalk of the ovule. Thus the 

 calyx of the ovule is, as it were, softened both by the motions of the 

 infundibulum and its secretions. When the blood flow is impeded by 

 the constriction and pressure, and all nutrition is stopped, the calyx 

 is stretched even to the point of rupture of the stigma; then the yolk 

 is rolled out to be taken up later by the infundibulum. At that lime 

 the characteristic transverse fibrils of the infundibulum, which form 

 the suture described above, as well as the fibers at the beginning of the 

 superior and inferior mesometrium, contract alternately toward the 

 interior of the canal and force the yolk completely out of the open 

 calyx."*' The yolk is now propelled along the infundibulum and ar- 

 rives at the intermediate part of the oviduct which secretes albumen. 

 The infundibulum then opens again and expels the empty calyx. 

 Such an idea of the advance of the ovule by the oviduct seems fairly 

 sinely determined by the anatomical structure of the organs, although 

 it rarely ever happens that the process is actually witnessed in the 

 living animal. It is unlikely that these movements are accomplished 

 by a swelling up of the infundibulum, since it does not present that 

 vascular spongy structure peculiar to erectile organs, nor is it neces- 

 sary to resort to this explanation if we consider its muscular apparatus. 

 [14] I have found that in recently killed hens the position of the in- 



fundibulum is very variable with respect to the oviduct. In one case 

 the infundibulum hangs down perpendicularly, in another it falls over 

 to the left, in another to the right side; it is not necessarily turned to- 

 ward or away from the oviduct,* but it is suspended near the latter, at- 

 tached by its extremities to the left penultimate rib and to the uterus. 



§ 10 



The superabundance of secretion, and the 



involution of the reproductive organs. 



In many hens which carry a fully developed egg in the uterus, I find 

 the surface of the most mature [ovarian] ovum already macerated as 

 it were, wherefore I should venture to infer that it has experienced 

 some softening from the activity of the fimbriae. At this time you ^vill 



* See Al. Monro: Versuch einer Abhandlung iiber Vergleichende Anatomic, ans 

 dem Englischem (Gottingen: 1790), p. 80. [Alexander Monro primus: An Essay on 

 Comparative Anatomy (London: 1744; 3d ed. edited by his son. Ale.\. Monro II, 



1782).] 



