188 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 stria;, 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 taii. 



Gerber assigns a most complex structure to the spermatic 

 animalcules of the guinea-pig, describing stomachs similar 

 to those of the polygastric infusoriae, 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 in 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, 



f Repcrtorium, 1837. 



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



