OYARIAN FOLLICLES IN FERRETS AND FERRET- POLECAT HYBRIDS. 321 
contrary, it is ejected from the follicle at the time of rupture. Before it is ejected 
the greater part is separated from its connections with the follicular epithelium by 
the formation and extension of the secondary liquor folliculi, and when the part 
which is not so displaced is forced out at the rupture of the follicle, it carries with it 
filamentous processes of the bodies of the follicle cells, and sometimes also strands of 
displaced cells, which take part in the formation of the tertiary liquor folliculi which 
fills the remnant of the cavity of the ruptured follicle. 
As to the function of the membrane little can be said, because there is no definite 
evidence, but it is possible that it may serve to regulate the constituents of the sub- 
stances which pass into the antrum to form the fluid portion of the primary liquor 
folliculi. 
Antrum folliculi and Primary liquor folliculi. 
There has been considerable discussion as to the mode of formation of the antrum 
and the primary liquor folliculi, and there is a fairly general agreement that part of 
the fluid which appears is derived, either by osmosis or by secretion, through the 
follicle cells from the contents of the blood-vessels of the internal theca, but as to 
whether the fluid which appears, and by its appearance produces, the beginnings of 
the antrum, is at first inter- or intracellular there is difference of opinion, and there 
is also difference of opinion as to whether or not the dissolution of the follicle cells 
plays a considerable part in the formation of the fluid. Amongst those who hold 
that the breaking down of the follicle cells plays an important part in the formation 
of the fluid are Alexando (l), Janosik (14), Schottlander (36), Nagel (28), Van 
der Stricht (40), and Sandes (35), whilst Honore (13) holds that it is an intercel- 
lular secretion, and he shows that the so-called bodies of Call and Exner are not, 
as Janosik thought, vacuoles in cells but, in reality, intercellular spaces. My own 
observations entirely support Honore’s point of view, and I believe, moreover, that 
the central parts of the bodies are merely isolated portions of the general antrum. 
The point is one upon which it is difficult to form a positive opinion, and indeed it 
can scarcely be definitely settled until some improved methods of differential staining 
are evolved, for the photographs given by Van der Stricht of the bats’ ovaries, and 
those which Sandes gives of the ovaries of Dasyurus viverrinus, which are supposed 
to demonstrate the breaking down of follicle cells, can be equally well used to 
support an opposite opinion. The phenomena met with in the ferret, under the 
methods of preparation which I have adopted, indicate an inter- rather than an intra- 
cellular origin of the fluid portion of the primary liquor. The matter is of import- 
ance in association with the real nature of the primary liquor ; for if it is formed by 
the dissolution of the follicle cells, it is primarily a fluid in which may be found here 
and there the remnants of destroyed cells; but. if, as appears to be the case in- the 
ferret, it is formed by an intercellular secretion which forces apart the bodies of the 
cells and extends their substance into long intercommunicating filamentous processes, 
then the primary liquor folliculi is primarily a reticulum filled with fluid secreted by 
