370 ANDREWS. (Vou. XII. 
showed wave-like modulations of its surface outline, possibly 
due to accession of more material from the egg. 
About the point of entrance of the first sperm, there arose 
for some distance a host of delicate threads, closely resembling, 
except in their instability and their unevenness of length, 
those of the normal eggs. These threads had an optical effect 
of being outspinnings of the outer clear layer of the egg, and 
of the mere surface substance of this. At other regions there 
was sometimes an effect of the processes piercing this and 
arising from the inner or true surface of the egg itself. That 
they did arise in some places from the outer layer was shown 
by local formations of short, papillose roughenings of this, 
which were seen first as mere superficial unevennesses but 
which afterwards extended themselves so as to form true 
threads. 
That the outer layer and its products were, for the time 
being at least, part of the living material of the egg, —a true, 
ectosarc-like formation, — seemed proven by ramifications of the 
threads in the more abnormal regions of spinning ; by unsta- 
ble anastomosis with each other of such secondary, and also of 
the primary, processes ; and by the general flux of their sub- 
stance to and from the layer, as well as amongst each other, 
in a manner most characteristic of protoplastic phenomena. 
Such activities were noted in the tufts, and indeed there 
were no characters optically discoverable which enabled one to 
separate the two groups of phenomena in these abnormal eggs. 
In normal cases the single tuft is formed from a delicate 
covering of the egg, which has the same general character as 
the thick, abnormal envelope, being merely more stable and 
quiet. 
At time of forming these areas and processes in the abnormal 
type-instance the nuclear membrane had not yet been dissipated, 
but lay somewhat to one side of the egg. The nuclear area, 
although perfect, showed itself to be immature by the mode of 
distribution of its elements.! The progress of this special egg 
1 Certain progressive differences which mark the development or maturation of 
this cell body are described in a forthcoming thesis on the living substance Zev se 
in some of its more minute structural aspects. 
