3o6 THE PHYSIOLOGY OF REPRODUCTION 



The significance of the presence of histones in the spermatozoa of 

 some fishes becomes more apparent if the development of the sexual 

 organs is considered. 



It was Miescher who pointed out that in the salmon the sexual 

 organs develop at the expense of the muscular system and that the 

 salmine deposited in the testis during the breeding season must be 

 derived from the proteins of the muscle, since the fish does not 

 take any food during that period. A comparison between the 

 amount of arginine present in salmine and that present in the 

 muscle of the salmon, shows' that all the arginine deposited as 

 salmine during the breeding season can be accounted for by the 

 arginine which becomes available by the involution of the muscular 

 elements. 



This result would siiggest that the formation of salmine is not 

 due to a profound chemical alteration of the various constituents 

 of the muscle-proteins, transforming the divers substances into 

 arginine, but rather to a gradual enrichment in arginine of the 

 muscle-protein by the splitting off of a number of the other con- 

 stituent substances. 



The investigation of the unripe spermatozoa of the salmon ^ and 

 of the mackereP has shown indeed that instead of a protamine a 

 . histone is present, i.e. a substance which represents the transition 

 stage between the typical proteins and the protamines. 



It would appear, therefore, that in the fishes the chemical 

 processes which lead to the formation of the spermatozoa consist of a 

 rearrangement of the constituents of the proteins of somatic tissue, 

 so that a gradual accumulation of the basic substances rich in 

 nitrogen takes place. This change leads at first to the formation of 

 histones, and in some species stops here. In the majority of cases 

 the change proceeds to the formation of substances belonging to 

 the protamines. 



In some Invertebrates (Arhacia pustulosa*^ Sphmrechinus granu- 

 laris^) the spermatozoa have been investigated and histones have 

 been found to be present. 



Of the higher Vertebrates, the spermatozoa of the frog, the cock, 



1 Kossel, "Einige Bemerkungen iiber die Bildung der Protamine im 

 Thierkbrper," Zeitsch. f. physiol. Ghem., vol. xliv., 1905. "Weiss, "Unter- 

 suchungen iiber die Bildung des Lachs-Protamins," Zeitsoh. f. physiol. Ghem., 

 vol. lii., 1907. 



^ Miescher, "Physiologisch-Chemische Untersuchungen iiber die Lachsmilch," 

 Histochemische Arbeiten, Arckiv f. Experimetitelle Pathologie u. Pharmakologie, 

 vol. xxxvii., 1896-97. 



* Bang (I.), "Studien iiber Histon," Zeitsch. f. physiol. Ghem.,-vo\. xxvii., 1899. 



* Mathews, "Zur Chemie der Spermatozoen," Zeitsch. f. physiol. Ghem., 

 vol, xxiii., 1897. 



' Kossel, "iiber die einfachsten Eiweisskorper," Biochemisches Gentralblatt, 

 vol. v., 1906-07. 



