44 SPERMATIC PARTICLES. 



vitality, have led me to adopt the opinion, that this portion is intimately connected 

 with their vitality, and that generally of the whole process of their elimination. It 

 would seem to be this wise : after the cephalic portion has been formed, the minute 

 oro^anic irranules with which it is surrounded begin to take a linear arrangement at 

 one of its extremities, and by this means, modified by the type of spermatic particle 

 in question, the tail of variable length is formed. This will account for its excessive 

 tenuity and the variations in its length. Of course, when the vitality of the particle has 

 ceased, the tail would, as a granular body, be the first to lose its integrity, and therefore 

 drop off. During the intervals of the procreative period, when the sexual impulse is 

 passed, and the corporeal forces are abstracted from the testicular organs, the elimi- 

 nation of these bodies must be less perfect than at any other time. Less vitalized 

 organizable blastema is thrown out, and of course less of the primitive granular matter 

 formed. 



This would account for the fact above mentioned, that the spermatic particles of 

 the Batrachians in the month of October do not generally have tails, or, if so, they 

 are short and imperfectly formed. 



In this connection I ought to mention a factM. Lallemand* has noticed in patients 

 broken down by seminal losses. It is, that, in these cases, the spermatic particles 

 are imperfectly formed, their tails being rough, irregular, and indistinct. 



This mode of the genesis of the filamentous portion of the spermatic particles 

 is not without its very apt analogue in the common morphology of tissues. In the 

 process of inflammation, this granular blastema is thilawn out in abundance, and that 

 portion which does not take the organization of pus or other cells, is very apt to form 

 by a single aggregation in a linear way that jihrillated structure, extremely delicate, 

 met with in inflammatory products. 



The Motion of Spermatic Particles. 



This, from several considerations, should claim our attention for a few moments. I 

 think there can be but little doubt, that the movements are effected by means of the 

 tail, and therefore expressive of the vitality of the body. But I should be unwilling 

 to assert that these movements are entirely due to this organ, since among some of 

 the Articidata, and especially with some of the Arachnidce, no tails are found. 



It is useless here to discuss a question, when we have no data to stand upon. Of 

 the whole class of cell-motions we know nothing, excepting that they are purely 



• Des Perles Seminahs involutUaires. Montpelier, 1841. Also, Annal. des Sci. Nat., Tom. XV. p. 30. 



