266 JORDAN. [Vol. V. 



maculosa femelle, et qu'il a designee sous le nom de Rcceptaculum 

 seminis, a une situation anatomique et une structure identiques 

 a celles de la glande pelvienne du male. ... Je ne crois pas 

 exacte l'opinion de v. Siebold relativement au role physiologique 

 de cette glande chez la femelle, car je n'ai vu dans aucun cas 

 de spermatozoides engages dans les tubes de cette glande." V. 

 Siebold's careful descriptions and figures would seem, notwith- 

 standing, to leave no doubt as to the presence of spermatozoa in 

 all the species of female Urodela examined by him, and it is 

 certain that in Diemyctylus, spermatozoa ensconced in these 

 ducts may be detected without difficulty. 



The question as to how the spermatozoa find their way to 

 these snug resting-places is one of considerable interest. Why 

 should they enter these small ducts and there lie dormant, in 

 preference to passing en masse up the oviducts, or to entering 

 the alimentary canal, or even to issuing from the mouth of the 

 cloaca ? It appears to me probable that the explanation lies 

 in what Pfeffer has called "positive chemotaxis." Pfeffer 

 found, as is well known, that certain chemical substances, as 

 malic acid, attract spermatozoa (positive chemotaxis), and that 

 others, as chloroform, repel them (negative chemotaxis). For 

 example, the mucilage in the central canal of the archegonia of 

 Pteris contains a trace of malic acid, and Pfeffer has shown that 

 this amount is sufficient to attract spermatozoa to the mouth 

 of the canal. A similar explanation has been given by some 

 bacteriologists to account for the gathering of leucocytes at 

 inflammatory foci. It is supposed that the leucocytes have 

 been drawn thither in virtue of their chemotactic properties 

 which were brought into play by the metabolic bacterial poisons, 

 or, as now seems more likely, by the freed albuminoid con- 

 stituents of the bacterial cell. 



It seems highly probable that the pelvic gland of the female 

 newt may secrete a substance — proteid or otherwise — with a 

 positively chemotactic effect and thus draw the spermatozoa 

 into its ducts. At all events, such a supposition may serve for 

 a provisional hypothesis. I shall reserve a further considera- 

 tion of the structure and significance of this gland until my 

 later paper. 



The most favorable time to watch the process of copulation 

 is between the first of April and the middle of May. After 



