SPERMATIC PARTICLES. 33 



is conformable to the structure of the organ generally. And I think it pretty clearly 

 settled now, that all the products of secretion are the results of the functions of these 

 cells ; that is, the elaboration of bile or milk, for instance, is accomplished by the 

 material transuding the walls of these cells.* 



Considering the testicle as a glandular organ, it is a matter of considerable physio- 

 logical importance, to ascertain if its epithelial lining serves as the real secreting tissue 

 of the sperm. In other words, if parent sperm-cells are not epithelial cells. In the 

 very able and complete article entitled " Semen," by Drs. Wagner and Leuckardt, in 

 The CijclopcEdia of Anatomy and Physiology, this question is raised and discussed, but 

 no positive opinion given, as they think it not yet mature. 



I have had the good fortune to conduct some observations bearing upon this point 

 with success. The result of these may be briefly stated as follows. The tubes of 

 the testes of animals which have not arrived at the age of puberty have a simple epi- 

 thelial lining, the cells of which do not differ at all from those of a. pavement form cover- 

 ing mucous membranes. When, however, the animal begins to have the generative im- 

 pulses, the character of the cells seems in a manner modified ; they appear to pass to a 

 higher grade of function, exactly as do those of the mammary gland at the time of 

 lactation, and this without losing their primitive type as epithelial cells. It may be 

 thought that the thin vesicular character of the parent sperm-cells would separate them 

 distinctly from the category of epithelium ; but this difference can, I think, be considered 

 only as an expression of their higher relation and function. 



Of this much I feel pretty certain, and, aside from the facts just mentioned, it may 

 be considered as deciding the matter, at least as far as can be in questions of this kind : 



We see in the field simple nucleated cells, differing from the common epithelial cells 

 in no respect, except their slightly increased size. By the side of these, perhaps, we 

 see a similar cell with the nucleus divided, and then, again, these divided nuclei sub- 

 divided, and so on, the original cell simply dilating, being thinned and rendered quite 

 transparent ; and this process goes on until the embryology of the Spermatozoa is 

 completed, the whole being referable to an epithelial cell, undergoing the highest 

 metamorphoses attainable by cell-structure. 



Our next inquiry is. What is the histology of tliese epithelial cells ? For an expose 

 of tliis part of our subject, I must refer to my former investigations on these matters. 



This is, in brief, that the cells arise from minute hollow nuclei, — consisting most 

 probably of a particle of oil, having an albuminous envelop (the haplogen membrane of 



* See an article in the July number of the American Journal of Medical Science, upon Epithelial Struc- 

 tures. 



