22 



Wolf (36) worked on this problem in rabbits, and summarizes 

 as follows: "The motility of rabbit spermatozoa can be preserved 

 for at least nine days by placing the juice of the epididymis in 

 the Tyrodc solution which had been buffered and to which glucose 

 had been added. The solution is adjusted to a pH of about 7.4. 

 Oxj'gen is passed in and a suitable amount of sodium bicarbonate 

 added. The preparation must be kept at a temperature near the 

 freezing i^oint of water." Under ordinary conditions motility 

 persists outside the body only a few hours after ejaculation, but 

 if the semen is kept quite cool till the time of examination on a 

 warm stage, motility should be capable of being restored in at least 

 a fair percentage of the sperms for twenty-four to forty-eight 

 hours. The cells are more sensitive to heat than to cold, and even 

 to dilute acids more than to alkalies. 



Henle (quoted by Ellenberger) states that a spermatozoon under 

 favorable conditions travels at the rate of twenty-seven millimeters 

 in seven and one-half minutes, which makes three and five-tenths 

 millimeters per minute. This is about sixty times the entire 

 length of the spermatozoon, and twenty-one centimeters in an 

 hour. Forward motion is also more pronounced when the swim is 

 against the current, such as is produced by the cilia of the oviduct. 

 It has been demonstrated that feebly motile sperms become very 

 actively motile when placed on the mucosa of a fresh Fallopian 

 tube. 



Technique 



The material used in the work came from abattoir animals, bull 

 calves and adult bulls raised in the department herd, and sires 

 upon which clinical observations had been made by various veteri- 

 narians in the field. Senlen samples, many of which were sent in, 

 were collected as often as possible after the method described by 

 AVilliams (16). The genital organs were removed with as little 

 chance of contamination as possible, and taken or sent to the 

 la1)oratory where the examinations were made soon after arrival. 



All cultures were made by searing the surface carefully, tearing 

 out a small portion of the tissue with sterile forceps, and placing 

 it upon the media. In most cases, however, where fluids were 

 ])resent, tubes were inoculated with the material which had been 

 drawn off with a sterile pipette. As stated by Carpenter (9), in 

 his work on the female genital tract, the organisms usually live 

 in the depths of the tissue. The media used principally were glu- 

 cose glycerin agar (glucose 1 per cent, glycerin 3 per cent) ; plain 

 agar, both with a pH value of 7.4, and Loeffler's blood serum. 

 Small amounts of sterile blood serum or defibrinated blood were 

 added to most of the agar slants to insure better growths of 

 streptococci when present. All tubes, to which the serum had 

 been added, were incubated for forty-eight hours before inocula- 

 tion to insure absolute sterility. 



After inoculation, the agar tubes were sealed with sealing wax 

 to give a partial oxygen tension which was quite necessary in iso- 



