Sixth Annual Meeting. 87 



familiar with it, and to know positively what yon see. I have 

 heard professional microscopists remark that frequently ; and 

 embryology requires the same critical, trained eye to follow the 

 processes. The work that Mr. Wilmot speaks of gives illustra- 

 tions of the condition of the egg, and it shows the segmentation 

 and gives the whole process. 



Mr. Stone : I think it is perfectly well established that the 

 results of impregnation — the first furrowing or segmentation of 

 the egg — is very slow and gradual. I think there is no doubt 

 about that. The results of the impregnation are slow and 

 gradual, and in a salmon-egg the very first furrowing only takes 

 place after twenty-four hours ; and if I understand Dr. Edmunds 

 rightly when he speaks of this instantaneous change which 

 takes place at the time of impregnation, he means something 

 that is different from the segmentation, or the furrowing, or any 

 of the results of impregnation. He speaks of the instantaneous 

 change in the cell-structure of the egg. 



Mr. Edmunds : Yes, sir. 



Mr. Stone : And that is the thing that I would like to get at. 



Mr. Edmunds : It is a thing that I have never experimented 

 with, but it is well established. 



Mr. Evarts : That instantaneous change, I should say, 

 probably, judging from the impregnation, would be the closing 

 of the orifice through which the spermatozoa had entered the 

 egg, and it would keep any other spermatozoa from entering. 



Mr. Phillips : Mr. President and Gentlemen : It is from 

 rather a high and scientific standpoint that you have been 

 speaking, and perhaps the matter which I would like to bring 

 to your attention may not be as lofty, but still it is one which 

 interests me exceedingly. The discussion which has just been 

 had is very interesting to society, and so far as it tends in one 

 w;tv or the other to determine how long milt can be carried, 



