420 
Avgas persicus 
The function of the secretion of the accessory gland is apparently 
twofold. It is responsible for the formation of the thin chitioous 
capsules of the spermatophores; and its fluid secretion serves as a 
diluent of the seminal fluid; while the granules suspended in this 
fluid, evidently identical with the secretion of the granular lobes, may 
possibly serve for the nutrition of the spermatozoa during their more 
or less lengthy sojourn in the uterus and oviducts of the female. 
The Spermatozoa. 
Plate XXVII, fig. 6 a-d. 
As they appear in the vasa deferentia and the seminal vesicle of 
the male, the spermatozoa are stout, cylindrical rod-like bodies measuring 
about 02 mm. in length and 10 /u, in diameter. The nucleus is represented 
by a linear streak of chromatin situated on the periphery of the body 
near one extremity. 
The body of the spermatozoan, as seen in its entirety, exhibits a 
peculiar arrangement of the cytoplasm, which has the appearance of 
a number of stout longitudinal strands of deeply-staining cytoplasm. 
In transverse sections of the spermatozoan, these more deeply-stained 
internal parts resolve themselves into two concentric sheaths, the 
inner of which is generally thrown into one or more continuous longi¬ 
tudinal folds owing to the narrow limits of the space in which it is 
confined. A careful examination of the entire spermatozoan shows that 
the inner sheath is formed as an invagination of the outer sheath, the 
place of continuity of the two sheaths being distinctly visible at one 
extremity of the body. 
When the spermatozoa ultimately escape from the spermatophore 
in the uterus of the female, the inner sheath is then completely 
evaginated, and the spermatozoan becomes almost doubled in length. 
Unfortunately, we have not had an opportunity of following the 
remarkable sequence of transformations through which the spermatozoan 
passes after it leaves the testis of the male, but from what observations 
we have made, the process appears to be identical with that exhibited 
by the spermatozoa of Ixodes ricinus, which has been the subject of an 
interesting paper by Samson 1 to which the reader is referred. 
1 Samson, K. (1909 6). 
