author's abstract of this paper issued 

 by the bibliographic service september 28. 



SEASONAL CHANGES IN THE INTERSTITIAL CELLS 

 OF THE TESTIS IN THE WOODCHUCK (MARMOTA 

 MONAX) 



ANDREW T. RASMUSSEN 



From the De partment of Histology and Embryology, Cornell University, Ithaca, 



Neio York 



ONE CHART AND THREE PLATES (tWENTY-SIX FIGUREs) 



INTRODUCTION 



It is generally accepted that there is a close relationship be- 

 tween the testis of male vertebrates and the development of the 

 genital tract and of the secondary sexual characters. There is a 

 further tendency to regard the testis as one of the endocrine or- 

 gans which elaborates some internal secretion which governs the 

 above mentioned growth processes and which plays some role 

 in connection with the sexual instincts. Naturally many 

 workers along this line have attempted to ascertain what tissue 

 in the testis is responsible for the production of the 'autacoid,' 

 if such there be. The extensive and comparatively recent re- 

 views of the literature by Biedl (Innere Sekretion, II Aufl., '13) 

 and by Tandler and Grosz (Die biologischen Grundlagen der 

 sekundaren Geschlechtscharaktere, Berlin, '13), as well as re- 

 searches reported since thesfe works appeared, seem very con- 

 vincing that the interstitial cells (cells of Leydig), and not the 

 germinal cells nor Sertoli cells, are the producers of the internal 

 secretion. Hence the term 'interstitial gland of the testis,' 

 first used by Bouin and Ancel in 1903, occurs quite frequently 

 in the literature of the present day. It must be admitted, how- 

 ever, that the Sertoli cells, especially, have not been adequatelj'' 

 ruled out as a possible factor in this endosecretory function. 



475 



