TESTIS IN DECAPODOUS CRUSTACEA. 435 



and comparatively few in number, this matter is in small 

 quantity ; but in the lower part of the tube, where the cells 

 are more numerous, more developed, and in a more active 

 condition, it exists in the greatest abundance. Still lower 

 down in the vas deferens, where the cells are in a state of 

 satiety, and are in fact absorbing principally their own external 

 wall, preparatory to bursting, it again diminishes in quantity, 

 and disappears. 



This albuminous matter would appear to result from the 

 debris of dissolved cells. It is more abundant in the 

 Brachyura than in the other forms of Crustacea, in accordance 

 with the greater abundance of seminal cells.* 



H. D. S. G. 



* An abstract of more extended observations on the subject of this chapter 

 was published in the Ed. Phil. Journal, October 1843. 



