CHROMOSOMES AND MITOCHONDRIA 287 



directly ; and it is the opinion of Meves, Duesberg, 

 and their followers that they play an important role 

 in fertilization. Likewise in the spermatozoa ideas 

 differ regarding their functions. Benda (1899) 

 believed them to be motor organs; Koltzoff (1906), 

 from a study of the spermatozoa of Decapods, 

 maintains that they represent elements which form 

 a sort of cellular skeleton ; Regaud (1909) claims 

 that they are the particular cellular organs which 

 exercise a "fonction eclectique," extracting and 

 fixing substances in the cell, and should therefore be 

 called "eclectosomes"; and Meves (1907, 1908) 

 holds that they are cytoplasmic constituents cor- 

 responding to the chromosomes of the nucleus. 

 Meves (1907, 1908) came to the conclusion that there 

 must be hereditary substances in the cytoplasm, 

 and by the method of elimination decided in favor 

 of the mitochondria. In his studies on fertilization 

 and cleavage in Ascaris (Meves, 1911, 1914) he has 

 shown that granules from the spermatozoon (Fig. 

 79) fuse with similar granules in the egg, as described 

 previously by L. and R. Zoja (1891), and that these 

 granules are plastosomes. The distribution of the 

 fused granules is followed until the amphiaster is 

 formed in the two-cell stage ; here the plastosomes 

 are mainly grouped about the centrosomes, although 

 a few are scattered about in the cytoplasm (Fig. 79, 

 D). 



Although there are many who believe Meves and 

 his followers to be correct in their contention that 

 the plastosomes are the bearers of hereditary charac- 



