DEPOSITION OF SPERMATOPHOES. 5 



floor of the pericardium by a delicate band of transparent 

 tissue. Thejj i. e. the ovaries, contain spermatozoa, some of 

 which project through the ovarian walls into the body-cavity. 

 This condition has been figured and described by Moseley (loc. 

 cit., pi. 74, fig. 1). 



The ovaries always contain spermatozoa, but in smaller 

 numbers directly after the eggs have passed into the ovi- 

 duct than at any other time. This is a very marked feature 

 of an ovary, say, of the beginning of April, when compared 

 with an ovary from which the ova have just passed into the 

 oviducts, say, of the beginning of May, the former being of an 

 opaque-white colour to the naked eye, while the latter has a 

 much more transparent appearance. 



This fact would seem to imply that fresh spermatozoa pass 

 each year into the ovaries. This brings me to the question of 

 the manner in which the male discharges his function. The 

 vesiculae seminales (testes of Moseley and Balfour) are almost 

 empty of spermatozoa in the months of February, March, and 

 April. At the end of April, however, they begin to swell 

 again and contain spermatozoa, which increase in number as 

 time goes on, until, in October, they are fully distended with 

 spermatozoa in all stages of development. There seems to be no 

 functional intromittent organ, but the male deposits little oval 

 spermatophors quite casually on any part of the body of the 

 female, and, for all that I know, of the male also ; e. g. I have 

 often seen them on the head. How these little packets of 

 spermatozoa get into the vagina, and then up the uteri, 

 which are always full of embryos, I cannot conceive. The 

 spermatozoa exhibit a certain amount of vibratory movement, 

 and no doubt, once within the vagina, they are set free from 

 the spermatophor and make their way up the female genera- 

 tive tube, between the embryos and the uterine walls. Inas- 

 much as the deposition of spermatophors lasts from June 

 until January, each female probably has a large number of 

 spermatophors deposited on her, and some of these are prob- 

 ably near the generative opening, and are, somehow or another 

 transported through it into the vagina. 



