76 ARTIFICIAL PARTHENOGENESIS AND FERTILIZATION 
While Figs. 24-26 give a picture of the decay of an egg at 
room temperature, the start of disintegration at a somewhat 
lower temperature is represented in Figs. 27-31. The eggs were 
kept at a temperature between 5° to 10°C. after membrane 
formation with butyric acid. Many divided and the disinte- 
gration began later. Drawings were made of a series of differ- 
Fig. 27 Fig. 28 
Fig. 29 Fig. 30 Fig. 31 
perntare, ‘the egg can reach the elshi<coll beace udar aieW aera 
ent eggs in incipient disintegration. In all cases this started 
with the formation of small drops, usually in the plane of 
division; the result is always similar to that shown in Fig. 26. 
We now can answer the question, what is the réle of the 
subsequent treatment of the egg with the hypertonic solution: 
it serves the purpose of preventing the disintegration which 
begins at the time of the first cell division. The conditions 
for this action of the hypertonic solution will be considered in a 
subsequent chapter. 
