320 J. E. BLOMFIELD. 



Review of Recent Researches on Spermatoge- 

 nesis, 



By 



«r. E. Blomfield. Ifl.A., 



Since the publication of my two former papers on the sub- 

 ject of Spermatogenesis (vide this Journal January, 1880, and 

 July, 1881) some accounts of the researches of other observers 

 have been published in foreign periodicals, which go far to 

 support the attempt made in the papers referred to, to establish 

 a general plan of Spermatogenesis which should be applicable 

 to the animal kingdom, or, at any rate, to a large part of 

 it. While our knowledge of the formation of the ovum was 

 fairly perfect, observations on the development of the cor- 

 responding sexual element, though by no means deficient in 

 number, yet were wanting in completeness and wideness of 

 scope. For instance, in such an animal as the frog, many had 

 observed the process for a short time and drawn conclusions as 

 to how this was conducted from data which were necessarily 

 incomplete ; since the observations to be of any value in sucb 

 animals which procreate once in the year, must be continued 

 during the whole period from the time of procreation till the 

 next crop of spermatozoa is ready. 



The publications now referred to, tend strongly to prove the 

 truth of the views expressed in my former papers, and confirm 

 the conclusion that the process as found in Mammals is closely 

 similar to that of Mollusca. This conclusion was, at the time, 

 somewhat sjx^cuhitivc! since it was founih-d on interpretations of 

 the drawings of other observers different to those which they 

 themselves had ini])osod u])on thcMr observations. 



The first papers of which it is proposed here to give an ac- 



