20-i RELATIONS OF OVA AND GEMMiE. 



transition into tlie pliytozoa or ciliated spermatic particles, 

 as the fixed gemmae of some species of articulated animals 

 do into true ova. 



It may be observed also that altliougb tbe vitality of the 

 spermatozoa is soon lost on exposure, it may be protracted 

 indefinitely under more favourable conditions, as by trans- 

 ference to the female organs. One charge of the sperma- 

 theca will enable a queen-bee to lay impregnated eggs for 

 several years, during the whole of which time the sperma- 

 tozoa continue in a state of activity. Siebold quotes 

 Dzierzon for the statement that a queen may acquire the 

 power of laying fertilized eggs for fi^'e years by a single 

 normally executed copulation.* The evolution of the sper- 

 matozoa, indeed, is only in progress in some cases at the 

 ejaculation of the seminal fluid, and is thus perfected in the 

 normal course of things after their removal from the male 

 organs. Thus in Spiders these particles are not matured 

 till after the fluid is transferred to the cavities of the palpi, 

 and in the higher Crustacea not till its introduction into 

 the passages of the female. "f" 



§ 8. May not the true theory be, that each of the sexual 

 elements is essentially a gemma, endowed with a high de- 

 gTee of vitality, which confers upon it a capacity of develop- 

 ment, but which is, at the same time, of a self-exhausting 

 nature, unless tempered by combination with its pre- 

 arranged complement of the other sex — the fusion of the 

 two elements being a sort of physiological illustration of 

 the connubial relation of the sexes, " ordained for the 

 mutual society, help, and comfort, that the one ought to 

 have of the other." 



* True Parthenogenesis in Moths and Bees, p. 61 , note. It is the same 

 also with several Araehnida, according to Blanchard. Comptes Rendus 

 (April 9, 1860), p. 127. 



f Wagner and Leuckart, Cyclop, of Anat. and Physiology, article, 

 " Semen." H. Goodsir, Anatomical and Physiol. Observations, p. 39. 



