ORGANS OF GENERATION. 287 



digestion, find seems to consist of albuminous bodies, or bodies 

 closely related, which show a variable resistance towards pepsin- 

 hydrochloric acid. The semen of bulls does not contain any 

 adenin, but the other three xanthin bodies treated of on pages 

 49-51 (KossEL and SCHINDLER) are present. 



The SPERMATOZOA of the RHINE SALMON show, according to 

 MIESCHER, a great resistance. With caustic-potash and soda solu- 

 tions they give a cloudy, gelatinous mass which is precipitated as 

 shreds by acids ; but these shreds do not dissolve in an excess of 

 the acid. They are strongly attacked by a 10-15$ solution of 

 NaCl or NaN0 3 , and the semen is converted by such a solution 

 into a stiff gelatin. The head is attacked, but not the tail or the 

 middle part. This last-mentioned part, like the tail, contains albu- 

 min, which is dissolved by hydrochloric acid of 1 p. m., but not in 

 Nad. MIESCHER also found lecithin, fat, cliolesterin, guanin, and 

 sarkin in relatively large amounts in the salmon-semen. The 

 organic constituent occurring in the largest amount in the salmon- 

 semen is, according to MIESCHER, a combination of nuclein with 

 the base protamin, CgHaoNgO^OH, which is soluble in water but 

 insoluble in alcohol or ether. 



According to MIESCHER and PICCARD, the spermatozoa of sal- 

 mon contain 487 p. m. nuclein-protamin (268 p. m. protamin), 

 103 p. m. albuminous bodies, 75 p. m. lecithin, 60-80 p. m. guanin 

 and sarkin, 22 p. m. cholesterin, and 45 p. m. fat. KOSSEL and 

 SCHINDLER found no guanin, but xantJiin and large amounts of 

 adenin and hypoxanthin, in the SEMEN of the CARP. 



Spermatin is a name which has been given to a constituent similar to alkali 

 album inate, but it has not been closely studied. 



Prostatic concrements are of too kinds. One is very small, generally oval 

 in shape with concentric layers. In young but not in older persons they are 

 colored blue by iodine (!VERSEN). According to PAULICKY, they yield sugar 

 when warmed with dilute sulphuric acid ; but this statement has not been 

 substantiated by IVERSEN. The other kind is larger, sometimes the size of 

 the head of a pin, and consisting chiefly of calcium phosphate (about 700 

 p. m.) with only a very small amount, about 160 p. m., organic substance. 



(b) Female Generative Organs. 



The stroma of the ovaries are of little interest from a physio- 

 logico-chemical standpoint, and the most important constituent of 

 the ovaries, the Graaffian vesicles with the ovum, have thus far not 



