372 ANDREWS. [Vou. XII. 
cytoplasm shows amoeboid movements before, and for a short 
time after, these bodies are thrown off. 
Under magnification of three thousand diameters, the lobe-like 
protrusions of the substance here were seen to be still further 
extended in filose processes, most like the outer portion of the 
tuft which receives the sperm, but finer and more thread-like, 
less protoplastically diffuse. ; 
After the globules have been thrown off, these processes are 
for a short time withdrawn, while the general surface of the egg 
smooths itself out, restoring the general contour. For a short 
time only, however ; for very soon the spinnings arise again 
from the pellicular surface, now in the form of still more deli- 
cate threads, or rays, which extend themselves towards the egg 
membrane, and even at moments attach themselves to this. 
They also surround the polar bodies with ramifications of 
extreme minuteness. 
At other points of the periphery similar spinnings spring up, 
the egg being still in the single-celled stage, and thus is inaugu- 
rated a phenomenon which from this time persists with varying 
freedom until shortly before the closing of the opening into the 
cleavage cavity, across which the polar bodies lie. Then all 
peripheral spinnings cease, to burst out once more for a few 
moments all over the pellicle when the free-swimming life of 
the larva is begun, after which no more filose activities were 
seen from the exterior of the embryo. 
The threads, or rays, formed from the pellicle in the one- 
celled stage are of extreme delicacy in the normal egg, and in 
many cases are but just perceptible with the powers named, 
except near their point of origin in the pellicle, where they are 
thicker and less viscid in appearance. 
They branch sometimes near their base and sometimes further 
out from the egg, when in their more fluid states, for their 
viscosity and their refractive quality vary from moment to 
moment. Such branches take a somewhat wandering course 
often, and anastomose, or interlace, with the secondary, or 
even at times with the primary, processes near them, so as to 
form unstable networks. The branches are often as thick as 
the threads from which they arise. 
