No. 639] SHORTER ARTICLES AND DISCUSSION 



hypothesis. Aeeorcliiii;' to this view, efrg-seeretion contains a 



tion is a symptom of the first union ; activation of the egg, a 

 symptom of tlie second, " Anti-fertilizin " occupies the agghiti- 

 nating valence and hence the normal union of sperm and fer- 

 tilizin is rendered impossibh'. Tlie inhibitor in the blood, on the 

 other hand, is elfective because it binds the second valence of the 

 fertilizin wliicli in consequence cannot unite with its normal 

 receptor in the egg. In the language of Ehrlich, fertilizin is an 

 amboceptor with ovophile and spermophile side-chains; and, 

 normal fertilization involves the formation of a chemical com- 

 pound which, written in linear fashion, can be thought of as 

 spej-m-receptor — si)ermophile side-ehain-ovophile side-chain — egg- 



The keystone of tlic hypothesis is the amboceptor. It symbo- 

 lyzes the effects of the M>cretion on spermatozoa and the effects 

 on eggs; it Mnd)oli7es also the information gotten from tlie two 

 inhibitors— tlie one iliat pirviMits ;m'<:-l iil mat ion and fcrtilizal ion 

 and the otiicr wliidi [htvimiIs merely leiiilizal urn. The aiiiho- 



of the symbolic and l)riim- it within the sphere of the commoner 

 conceptions of physics and eheiiiistr\ 



