270 MR. NEWPORT ON THE IMPREGNATION OF THE 0\UM IN IHE AMPHIBIA 
whether any, and which of these eggs had been fecnndated. At the expiration of one 
hour and twenty minutes, the temperature being 54° Fahr., the chamber was 
to be formed in the two eggs in which I had seen spermatozoa sticking m the iite - 
lary membrane, and these bodies were still readily detected in them, and continued 
to L so for two or three hours afterwards. These two eggs ultimately produced 
embryos. But no change took place in any of the thirteen eggs, in w ic i cou 
not detect spermatozoa,-no respiratory chamber was formed within, nor was any 
embryo produced. It was evident, therefore, that these had not been fecunda e , 
and it is probable that the whole of the detached eggs were those which had last 
been ejected from the oviducts, possibly after the act of fecundation by the male 
had been completed. Having found spermatozoa m two only of these detached eggs, 
I then examined several of those from the mass. In each of them I found numerous 
spermatozoa sticking around the yelk membrane, and very many , in t e c eai ^p' 
between the membrane and the granular middle portion of the envelope, ^^ich had 
not arrived at the membrane, and in every instance the eggs had been fecunda e , s 
the chamber was being formed at the time of examination, about an /tour and a 
quarter after the eggs had been deposited, so that the act of penetration by the sper- 
matozoon through the envelopes as far as the vitellary membrane, seenie us o 
clearly established as connected with the act of fecundation. is na i- 
with all the eggs taken from the upper and middle portion of the mass. u m a 
very few e»gs taken from the sides of the mass, I was not able to detect any sperma- 
tozoa, within the envelopes, or found only solitary instances of them. In these cases 
it was remarkable that no chamber had yet been formed above the yelk, although in 
some, in which spermatozoa were detected, it commenced at a atei peiio , so la 
these appeared to confirm the deduction from experiment with reference to quanti y 
of influence, or number of spermatozoa required to effect fecundation; while the 
penetration of the spermatozoa, as far as the vitellary membrane, and the subsequen 
development of the chamber above the yelk, appeared in the relation of cause an 
consequence, direct or indirect. 1 could not then observe, in the eggs thus examined 
any penetration by the spermatozoa completely through the 
the substance of the yelk; although numerous spermatozoa were attached by t 
larger ends, to every portion of the membrane, sticking out from it at right aiig es 
with what, at first, appeared to be a knob or knot at the distal end, or rather as it that 
part of the spermatozoon had been shrivelled up or scorched. Tins appeaiance, as 
I subsequently found, was due to a loop, or distortion of the tail of the fP®"™ ““ ‘ j 
consequent, apparently, on the death of this body. It was this looping of the fai 
which gave the appearance of a thick end to this part of the spermatic body 
detected within the envelopes in a previous observation. All the speimatozoa seen 
in connexion with the vitellary membrane were perfectly motionless ; so ^ 
the looping of the tail has taken place the fecundatory influence of these bodies may 
be held to have been already exercised and exhausted. 
