100 BULLETIN OF THE 



From the bottom of the funnel there proceeds to the zona radiata a 

 strongly and evenly twisted canal, which breaks off easily at the bottom 

 of the funnel. Owsjannikow cannot agree with Kolliker, who maintained 

 that in February these were solid fibres, because already in Novem- 

 ber and December he finds them hollow. The superficial layer of 

 the gelatinous mass, as well as that part which immediately surrounds 

 the canals, appears to be more compact than the rest of it, and the 

 vicinage of the funnel is more deeply stained by aniline red or gold 

 chloride than the other parts. The granules which occupy the canals 

 or the funnels never enter into the gelatinous substance when the canals 

 are ruptured, but escape into spaces which surround the canals. The 

 inner end of the canal does not terminate in a pointed maimer, as 

 figured by His, but is often enlarged into a funnel, and sometimes 

 divided into two or three fibres, — in one case into so many that 

 it looked like a brush. On one occasion these branches were traced 

 through the zona. These processes are to be seen only in stained speci- 

 mens (gold chloride followed by aniline blue), because, having the same 

 refractive power as the substance of the zona, they are otherwise undis- 

 tinguishable. The fine molecules which lie on the inner surface of the 

 zona were found to be deeply stained, and the author concludes that the 

 dye must have penetrated through the spiral canals. The function of 

 these canals must consist in the transportation of nutritive material to 

 the yolk. They arise out of the granulosa cells, are similar to those 

 seen by Eimer in the adder, and are not processes of the zona radiata, as 

 affirmed by Hoffmann. The lateral processes from the canals were also 

 seen by Owsjannikow, but he has for them another interpretation. The 

 matrix (Zwischensubstanz) appears to lie in layers parallel to the surface. 

 Upon its being swollen by any fluid, narrow fissures are formed be- 

 tween these layers, which join the canals and appear as processes from 

 them. 



Besides the difficulty of trying to comprehend how fissures could 

 arise as a result of the swelling of a gelatinous mass, — it would seem 

 that the reverse process ought to be more favorable to their appearance, 

  — the sufficient answer to this last claim is, that the transverse processes 

 are more deeply stained than the remaining portions of the matrix, 

 which could hardly be the case if they were simply fissures. 



It was in the hope of ascertaining something more about the inter- 

 esting capsular membrane in the perch, that I advised Mr. Eigen- 

 mann ('90) to include that fish in his studies on the development of 



