208 M. F. GUYER 



Again, from experiments of Guyer and Smith- with crystalhne 

 lens, it appears that antibodies for rabbit lens when introduced 

 into the blood-stream of pregnant rabbits may occasionally 

 attack the lens tissue of young in utero and also, directly or 

 indirectly, specifically afTect the germinal correlatives of this 

 tissue in the germ-cells of such young. It is of great importance 

 from the standpoint of heredity, therefore, to determine whether 

 or not an animal can build antibodies against its own tissues 

 when these become misplaced, altered, or injured in some way. 

 If such auto-antibodies may on occasion be constructed, then 

 the way seems clear to a reasonable inference of how certain 

 types of germinal changes are induced. Because of their dis- 

 tinctive nature and the ease with which they may be isolated, 

 spermatozoa lend themselves admirably to such a test. 



Figure 1 



With these thoughts in mind, the experiments which follow 

 were undertaken. The spermatozoa of rabbits were used as the 

 source of the antibodies. The treated males were tested from 

 time to time, both by breeding experiments and by direct micro- 

 scopical examination of their semen. To secure sufficient semen, 

 a male was allowed to copulate two or three times with a female 

 and the semen was drawn off from the latter by a pipette of 

 a type devised by members of the Department of Genetics. The 

 instrument (fig. 1) has a length of 18 cm., and is made of glass 

 tubing, 6 mm. in diameter. 



RABBIT SPERMATOTOXIN IN FOWL-SERUM 



Experiment 1 



The first test was made with two males, one untagged and the 

 other numbered 4A7. The three fowls used for sensitization 

 were injected intraperitoneally on January 22nd, 29th, and 



2 Jour. Exp. Zool., vol. 26, no. 1, May, 191S; ibid., vol. 31, no. 2, August, 1920. 



