42 THE SPERMATOZOIDS. 



filament was coiled up, and in close contact with the inner surface of wall 

 of the cellule (see figure 3). Wagner* confirmed Kolliker's discovery 

 of this mode of development of spermatozoid, and stated that it pre- 

 vailed in most, if not all mammalia, and likewise 

 in many birds and reptiles. HenleJ afterwards 

 conjectured that the third and fourth types of 

 development admitted by Kolliker were essen- 

 tially identical, that the globules seen by 

 Wagner in the large cells of the semen of 

 singing birds, previous to the appearance of the 

 spermatozoids in those cells were really cellules, 

 in each of which a spermatic filament was deve- 

 loped, and that the only difference between the 

 process in this case, and that discovered by 



Kolliker in the guinea-pig and mouse was, that in the former the 

 cellules are dissolved, and the filaments set free, the parent cell still 

 remaining entire,, whereas in the latter case the parent cell perishes first. 



This conjecture of Henle has been verified, in some measure, by obser- 

 vations of Dr. Martino, of Naples, on the development of spermatozoids 

 in rays and torpedos, but more completely by Kolliker himself, who, in a 

 second memoir, || has adduced a large body of evidence in support of the 

 view that the development of the spermatic filaments within cells is the 

 universal law. Kolliker believes that in those cases in which (as in the 

 Types I., II., and V. described in his earlier work) spermatic filaments or 

 spermatozoids appear to be formed by the lengthening out and transforma- 

 tion of the cells themselves, the process really consists in the formation of 

 filaments, singly or in fasciculi, within the cells, although in many cases 

 the minute size of the cells, and, in some cases, their opacity, render it 

 extremely difficult, or even impossible, to determine the fact absolutely. 

 In all the vertebrate classes, however, except the cyclostomatous fishes, 

 and in many invertebrate animals (insects, arachnoids, cephalopods, and 

 many gasteropods), he has distinctly observed the development of the 

 spermatic filaments within the spermatic cells ; and he has further ascer- 

 tained with certainty in all these animals, insects exeepted, that each 

 filament is formed singly within one of the smaller vesicles or cellules, 



Physiologic, p. 24. 



t This figure is taken from Kolliker's more recent memoir, " Die Bildung der Samen- 

 fa'den." It represents the development of the spermatozoids of the Rabbit, a. A parent 

 cell or cyst, with five cellules or nuclei, b. A parent cell with ten cellules, each of which 

 contains a spermatic filament, c. A free cellule or nucleus, with a nucleolus and granules, 

 more highly magnified, d. A cellule in which a spermatic filament is seen, the granules 

 having disappeared. J Allgemeine Anatomic, p. 960. 



Ann. des Sci. Natur. 1846, p. 297. 



|| Die Bildung der Samen-faden in Bliischen. Nurenburg, 1846. 



