86 PARTHENOGENESIS 



paration of course was not always successful, for sometimes the 

 yelk flowed out of the ruptured envelopes, without the produc- 

 tion of this empty space ; the yelk also remained diffused in the 

 upper part, and allowed of no certain judgment as to the pre- 

 sence or absence of seminal filaments. An error in crushing the 

 egg, a little too much pressure upon it, or perhaps also a pecu- 

 liar, less tenacious consistency of the yelk, probably caused the 

 contents of the yelk to retire in every direction from the pressure, 

 and therefore also to press upwards against the micropylar 

 apparatus. 



From the above-mentioned comb I examined ten eggs, which 

 I succeeded in transferring uninjured from their cells upon an 

 object-glass, which, from the delicacy of these eggs, is always a 

 matter of difficulty. The result of their microscopic examina- 

 tion was as follows : 



The first female egg exhibited nothing remarkable. In the 

 interior of the second egg, to my great delight, I observed three 

 distinct, but motionless seminal filaments within the empty 

 space which had been produced at the superior pole of the egg 

 by the flowing out of the yelk through the inferior pole. In a 

 third egg, after the same retirement of the yelk, I saw, in the 

 superior space of the egg which had become empty, a single 

 motionless seminal filament. In a fourth egg, I again observed 

 three motionless seminal filaments at the same spot. A fifth 

 egg, prepared in the same way, exhibited no seminal filaments. 

 A sixth and a seventh had probably been too strongly squeezed 

 in their preparation ; the necessary empty space could not be 

 produced in the interior of the egg at its superior pole, for which 

 reason I regarded these preparations as of no use for investiga- 

 tion. In an eighth and ninth egg, fortunately prepared, I again 

 saw a single motionless seminal filament in the superior empty 

 space of the cavity of the egg. In the tenth egg the preparation 

 was quite unsuccessful. This same comb with female eggs, after 

 being carefully preserved in a room, was made use of for the 

 continuation of these investigations at 8 o'clock in the morning 

 of the 23rd of August. An eleventh egg was spoilt during the 

 preparation ; as was also a twelfth. A thirteenth egg was in an 

 extremely interesting condition. After it had been for twenty- 

 two hours out of the bee-hive and had been successfully pre- 



