18-8 ORGANISED FLUIDS. 



Leeuwenhoek remarked upon the spermatozoa of the ram 

 two clear spots ; at another time, numerous little points in 

 the interior ; a third time, two semilunar strise, united by a 

 longitudinal line: he figures also in those of the rabbit a 

 multitude of little globules, one of them, larger than the 

 rest, being placed near the tail. 



Grerber assigns a most complex structure to the spermatic 

 animalcules of the guinea-pig, describing stomachs similar 

 to those of the polygastric infusoria^, an anus and sexual 

 apparatus ; and, conceiving the existence of these several 

 parts to have been established, he thus expresses himself in 

 reference to the nature of spermatozoa in general : " The 

 compound organization of the seminal animalcules and their 

 production by no equivocal generation, but m particular 

 sexual organs, and by the means of ova, to all appearance 

 proclaim their affinity to the Entozoa."* 



Valentin f has described an almost similar amount of 

 organization in the spermatozoa of the bear: " The clear 

 spermatozoa of the bear," he writes, " which in external form 

 approach those of the rabbit, present distinct traces of in- 

 ternal organization, to wit, an anterior and posterior haus- 

 tellate mouth, and internal cavities or convolutions of an 

 intestine." 



Again, Dujardin J has described and figured certain irre- 

 gular knots and lobular enlargements at the root of the tail 

 of the human spermatozoa; these have been noticed by 

 "Wagner, who believes that they occur only as the effects of 

 certain alterations experienced by the animalcules in conse- 

 quence of their long stay in urine, and especially when 

 this fluid has contained at the same time a quantity of puri- 

 form sediment. 



Wagner likewise points out, as occurring now and then, 

 but by no means constantly, a small prominence or trunk- 

 like process situated on the anterior part of the body of human 

 spermatozoa : this, or a similar projection, he also states to be 



* Gerber's General Anatomy, translated by Gulliver, p. 337. 



t Repertorium, 1837. 



% Ann. des Sciences Nat. viii. p. 293. plate 9. 1827. 



