372 M. P. Tascher on the Fecundation 



membrane of the tube and tlie infundibubim, I have, Uke 

 many others, obtained microscopic images which in the most 

 deceptive way simulated small sinuated or even contorted bag- 

 shaped glands ; but, by carefully comparing numbers of suc- 

 cessive sections, I have convinced myself that there is not one 

 single gland on the inner surface of the oviduct of the hen. I 

 can entirely confirm the results of Grlinwald in this respect (in 

 the Handbook of Strieker, pp. 1189, 1190) as against the 

 statements of Nasse, Meckel v. Helmsbach, Lereboullet, and 

 Leuckart. 



It is in the infundibulum that we must look for any arrange- 

 ment that could serve as a receptaculum seminis ; and I believe 

 that I have discovered it there. The appearance of the in- 

 fundibulum is extremely changeable. The general striking 

 difference in the appearance of the oviduct in laying hens and 

 in such as have not yet commenced laying, has often been 

 pointed out. But besides this there is a great diiference in 

 this respect between hens still laying and such as are sitting 

 or in a period of rest ; and, finally, considerable individual 

 differences may be observed between hens at the same stage. 



When the young hen has moulted for the first time, or 

 rather before the first moulting is accomplished, the oviduct 

 increases enormously in size, the infundibulum is considerably 

 expanded, new fusiform cells appear, older muscular fibres are 

 extended, and the muscular layers increase in size. At the 

 same time the cellular tissue swells considerably, becomes 

 fibrous and covered by a ciliated epithelium. The following 

 observations on the minute structure of the infundibulum of 

 the laying hen are the results of the examination of more than 

 twenty specimens : — The infundibulum is on the outside 

 covered by the same highly vascular adventitious membrane 

 as the tube. Inside the adventitia a fine fibrous tissue is 

 found, in which more or less concentric bundles of indistinctly 

 separated smooth muscular fibres are imbedded, running 

 parallel to the margin. These bundles may be considered as 

 constituting a direct continuation of the circular muscular 

 stratum of the tube, just as upon the whole the infundibulum 

 may be considered as an expanded continuation of the sub- 

 stance of the tube. Longitudinal muscles properly speaking 

 are entirely absent, at any rate towards the margin of the in- 

 fundibulum. There are many apparently longitudinal mus- 

 cular fibres and bundles of such ; but these appearances are 

 caused partly by the vessels, partly by the frequent divisions 

 and subsequent reunions of the transverse bundles, partly by 

 the circumstance that the circular bundles near the anterior 

 and posterior pointed extremities of the infundibulum are 



