CHROMOSOMES AND MITOCHONDRIA 287 
directly; and it is the opinion of Meves, Duesberg, 
and their followers that they play an important réle 
in fertilization. Likewise in the spermatozoa ideas 
differ regarding their functions. Benda (1899) 
believed them to be motor organs; Koltzoff (1906), 
from a study of the spermatozoa of Decapods, 
maintains that they represent elements which form 
a sort of cellular skeleton; Regaud (1909) claims 
that they are the particular cellular organs which 
exercise a “fonction éclectique,”’ extracting and 
fixing substances in the cell, and should therefore be 
called ‘“‘éclectosomes”; and Meves (1907, 1908) 
holds that they are cytoplasmic constituents cor- 
responding to the chromosomes of the nucleus. 
Meves (1907, 1908) came to the conclusion that there 
must be hereditary substances in the cytoplasm, 
and by the method of elimination decided in favor 
of the mitochondria. In his studies on fertilization 
and cleavage in Ascaris (Meves, 1911, 1914) he has 
shown that granules from the spermatozoén (Fig. 
79) fuse with similar granules in the egg, as described 
previously by L. and R. Zoja (1891), and that these 
granules are plastosomes. The distribution of the 
fused granules is followed until the amphiaster is 
formed in the two-cell stage; here the plastosomes 
are mainly grouped about the centrosomes, although 
a few are scattered about in the cytoplasm (Fig. 79, 
D). 
Although there are many who believe Meves and 
his followers to be correct in their contention that 
the plastosomes are the bearers of hereditary charac- 
