CONTENTS OF THE TUBULI SEMINIFERI. 139 



zone possess a peculiar form. According to Kolliker,* Sertoli 

 describes these cells, after treatment of the testis with a solution 

 of corrosive sublimate containing 0'5 per cent., and subsequent 

 maceration in water, as branched and intercommunicating, a 

 statement which Kolliker considers to be correct, as he has 

 met with similar appearances in preparations obtained by 

 maceration in caustic potash. Unfortunately the work of 

 Sertoli is not accessible to me, but I feel sure that the cells 

 are exactly the same as those which I here depict from the 

 Steer and Dog, after treatment of the testis with chromic acid 

 ( per cent.), or with a solution of iodine in serum for twenty- 

 four hours. 



Merkelf also discovered these cells, and considered that they 

 form a sponge-like cellular plexus everywhere lining the interior 

 of the tubuli, without any fibres, but with only flat anastomos- 

 ing processes. The significance of these cells is still unknown. 

 The contents of the seminiferous tubules, as Henle has correctly 

 stated, frequently exhibit a radial disposition. To the above- 

 described cells of the peripheral zone succeed several rows of 

 other cells, differing both from these and inter se, yet still hav- 



Fig. 171. 



Fig. 171. Seminal cells of the Dog and Bull, a, uni- and multi- 

 nucleated cells from the seminiferous tubules of the Dog ; 6, multi- 

 nucleated cells from the Bull. 



ing the same functional significance, and may hence be shortly 

 called seminal cells. Two principal types may be distinguished, 

 one With dark granular nuclei, and another containing clear 

 nuclei, either with or without nucleoli. The number of the 



* Handbuch der Gewebelehre, p. 530. 



+ Gdttinger Nachrichten, 1863, No. 1, p. 7. 



