374 



THEOPHILUS S. PAINTER 



is possible. After an extensive study of anomalies in Ascaris, 

 he comes to the conclusion that these fragments are probably 

 bits of chromatin brought into the egg when the polar bodies 

 did not receive their full share of chromatin. 



Kautsch approached the question of the accessory chromosome 

 in Ascaris in another way. He counted the number of somatic 

 chromosomes in eggs in which there was only one chromosome, 



E M 



Text figures J to N 



and he found that they fell into two numerical groups; one cen- 

 tering around 27, the other around 36, somatic chromosomes. 

 These, he suggests, may be male and female numbers. The 

 counts made by Kautsch are too few in number to be conclu- 

 sive, but it is interesting to note that his view falls into line with 

 the work done by Edwards ('10) on Ascaris lumbricoides. The 

 latter author, as is well known, found that the accessory chromo- 

 some in this species, is represented by a group of five small 

 chromosomes. 



