OVARIES. 623 



fat. The heads extracted with alcohol-ether contain on an average 

 960 p. m. protamine nucleate, which nevertheless is not uniform, but is 

 so divided that the outer layers consist of basic protamine nucleate, 

 while the inner layers, on the contrary, consist of acid protamine nucleate. 

 Besides the protamine nucleate there are present in the heads, although 

 to a very slight extent, organic substances. Of these we must mention 

 a nitrogenous substance containing iron which gives MILLON'S reaction 

 and which MIESCHER calls karyogen. The unripe salmon spermatozoa, 

 while developing, also contain nucleic acid, but no protamine, with a 

 protein substance, " albuminose," which probably is a step in the forma- 

 tion of protamine. According to KOSSEL and MATHEWS/ in the herring 

 as in the salmon, the heads of the spermatozoa consist of protamine 

 nucleate but no free protein. 



The chemical investigations on the spermatozoa have not given 

 us any information as to the condition for fertilization and the develop- 

 ment of the egg. 



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

 albuminate, but it has not been closely studied. 



Prostatic concrements are of two 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 (IVERSEN 2 ). The other kind is larger, sometimes the size 

 of the head of a pin, consisting chiefly of calcium phosphate (about 700 p.m.), with 

 only a very small amount (about 160 p. m.) of organic substance. 



(b) Female Generative Organs. 



The stroma of the ovaries is of little interest from a physiologico- 

 chemical standpoint, and the most important constituents of the ovaries, 

 the Graafian follicles with the ovum, have not thus far been the subject 

 of a careful chemical investigation. The fluid in the follicles (of the 

 cow) does not contain, as has been stated, the peculiar bodies, paral- 

 bumin or metalbumin, which are found in certain pathological ^ovarial 

 fluids, but seems to be a serous liquid. The corpora lutea are colored 

 yellow. Earlier investigators (PICCOLO and LIEBEN, KUHNE and EWALD 3 ) 

 have found a crystalline pigment in the . corpora lutea. In recent 

 investigations EscHER 4 has shown that this substance is a crystalline 

 hydrocarbon (C^Hse) which seems to be identical with the carotin of 

 the carrot and green leaves. The color of the crystals as well as the con- 

 centrated solution is reddish-orange. Carotin differs from the yellow 

 pigment of the yolk of the egg, the lutein, in having another formula 



1 Zeitschr. f. physiol. Chem., 23.^ 



2 Nord. med. Ark., 6. 



See Chapter V, p. 301. 



* Zeitschr. f . physiol. Chem., 83, 198 (1912). 



