No. 2.] THE OOGENESIS OF BUFO LENTIGINOSUS. 383 
of the nuclei wins the upper hand and subsequently absorbs 
all of the others. 
Gemmil’s (34) observations seem to indicate that “in der 
Regel geht aus einem Zellnest nur ein Ei hervor, und zwar 
durch directe Entwickelung aus einem der Elemente des Zell- 
nestes. Won den iibrigen Elementen bilden sich einige wieder 
zurtick und betheiligen sich an der Bildung der Granulosa, 
der Rest aber geht zu Grunde.” According to Gemmil, 
there appears to be a struggle among the cells as to which 
shall form the ovum; space being the chief factor which de- 
cides the contest. The cell which lies in the centre of a cyst 
has seemingly the most room for development and this is the 
one which usually wins. The fate of the other cells depends 
upon how far they have differentiated before the one cell be- 
comes the ovum and so governs the rest. The cells which are 
least differentiated assume the rdle of granulosa cells. Those 
further developed cannot go backwards; they either have to 
become eggs or disintegrate. If the cyst happens to be larger 
than usual, as many as four of the cells may have room to 
develop into functional eggs. Since extra space is rarely ob- 
tained by the cyst, all of the cells which have passed a certain 
stage of development before the egg has formed are, as a 
rule, forced to disintegrate, and traces of the débris from these 
cells are to be found for some time in the protoplasm of the 
developing egg. Hoffmann’s opinion regarding the origin 
of the egg in the Anura is similar to that of Gemmil, since 
he believes that one cell of a nest outstrips the others in 
development and forms the ovum while the others degenerate 
and become granulosa cells. Semon’s observations lead to 
a similar conclusion. 
Nussbaum and also Knappe (54) find a mulberry shaped 
nucleus in the primordial germ-cells, and they assert that 
this nucleus divides by amitosis into several small nuclei. One 
of these nuclei increases rapidly in size and becomes sur- 
rounded by the greater part of the cytoplasm of the cell, thus 
forming the egg; the other nuclei become arranged around 
the periphery of the egg to form the follicle epithelium. Ac- 
