HABITS, ETC., OF CEREBKATTJLUS LAOTEUS. 



137 



threads run back and forth between bodies and papillae, 

 lacing them together firmly (fig. 37). But even then the 

 threads are remarkably independent of one another, and in 

 no instance were two of them seen to fuse where they crossed, 

 though sometimes one would divide and attach itself by two 

 or more strands. 



These abnormal activities also emphasise the fact that those 

 spin-threads which connect polar bodies and egg emanate 

 from the former. Of the spin-threads arising from the egg 

 the longer ones do not extend toward the polar bodies, while 

 the shorter ones, which do, evidently do not reach across. 



The polar bodies take the initiative in spinning; and, 

 although the egg responds, it never reaches the same degree 

 of activity. 



If a higher power is used the polar bodies are transparent 

 enough to disclose something of their internal structure. 



The first body is pear-shaped, with a short process extend- 

 ing from the smaller end like a stem (fig. 41). Numerous 

 threads radiate in every direction from the enlarged tip of 

 this process, while a similar bunch of threads radiate immedi- 

 ately from the body at its opposite end, and a few weak 

 threads appear on the outer side. The interior is filled with 

 fine-grained protoplasm, with chromosomes at or near the 

 centre. 



The normal number of these seems to be five, but they vary 

 considerably, now appearing as five distinct curved rods (fig. 

 41), and again fusing to one large mass, with or without 

 a smaller one beside it (fig. 40) . The same chromosomes may 

 be seen in the second body, sometimes separate (fig. 44), at 

 others more or less fused (fig. 45). The fusion in both bodies 

 occurs at the time when they frequently divide, but the karyo- 

 kinesis does not show very plainly. During the emergence 

 of the second body the first one shows quite a marked polari- 

 sation (fig. 34), but the resultant figure is never as perfect a 

 spindle as in the second body, and the polarisation disappears 

 early in segmentation (fig. 44). The second body, on the 

 contrary, maintains its characteristic spindle shape through- 



