1G4 SEA-SIDE STUDIES. 



in that case he might have seen true spermatozoa. ""WTiat ! " 

 exclaims the reader, " spermatozoa in the ovary ? And pray, 

 sir, how gat they there ? " They were generated there, is 

 my simple answer ; but before such an answer will be 

 received a few remarks are necessary. 



Believing in the simplicity of this animal's organisation, 

 and disbelieving in the existence of any proper ovary, I was 

 naturally led a priori to disbelieve in the existence of male 

 reproductive organs. If a temporaiy specialisation of the 

 lining membrane sufficed as an ovary, would not a similar 

 specialisation suffice as a testis ? Meditating on this point, 

 it occurred to me as very probable that the same spot of the 

 lining membrane might subserve both purposes. What said 

 Fact to so plausible a Theory ? At first it answered by 

 what seemed like blank negatives ; on three foitunate occa- 

 sions, however, it seemed to answer in unequivocal affirma- 

 tion, for I found real spermatozoa moving amid the ova on 

 the stage of the Microscope. The observations were neither 

 sufficiently extensive nor sufficiently removed from opposite 

 interpretations to admit of a very positive statement on the 

 point ; accordingly I contented myself ynXh indicating my 

 belief* that ova and spermatozoa were intenningled in the 

 same stroma, announcing my intention of more attentively 

 investigating the point when next at the coast. Meanwhile, 

 I had read the M^moire on the Cerianthus, an animal nearly 

 allied to our Anemones, published by M. Jules HaimCj-f- in 

 whicli there is a detailed description, with diagrams, of this 



♦ Blackwood! s Magazine, Jan. 1857. 

 + Annates des Sciences, 1854. 



