446 PROCEEDINGS: BOSTON SOCIETY NATURAL HISTORY. 
where it comes into contact with the sperm. As shown in these fig¬ 
ures this mass in not homogeneous but made up of strands or, as it 
were, viscid drops flowed along side bv side. Where sperm and wax 
meet, there is- more or less commingling and an appearance as if the 
sperm had flowed in as a less viscid mass and been followed by the 
wax as a more viscid mass with some intermingling of streams. In 
some cases the wax tended to line the walls of the cavity of the tube 
and to surround a central mass of sperm. Isolated small islands of 
wax sometimes extended in amongst the sperm and a few sperms were 
found cut off from the rest and lying near the orifice. Such sperms 
not well sealed away from the water did not have their normal form. 
The way in which the male brings about this efficient closure of the 
cavity of the trumpet was not observed but may be inferred to be 
somewhat as follows. The sperm from the testis was seen in the vas 
deferens enveloped in a continuous tube of opaque white viscid matter 
secreted by the walls of the vas deferens. When the vas deferens was 
cut, its contraction forced out a length of this macaroni-like tube con¬ 
taining sperm in its central cavity and when a piece of this tube was 
put on a slide the sperm flowed out of its cut ends as if forced out by 
the shrinking of the walls of the tube. When the male transfers 
sperm to the annulus it is probable that both sperm and secreted tube 
flow down through the stylet into the annulus, but the more readily 
flowing sperm may pass first and fill the recess and tube of the trumpet, 
under combined pressure of vas deferens and shrinking secretion-tube. 
Later some of the pasty walls of the tube may be forced in as a viscid 
mass which subsequently hardens, flowing in less readily and there¬ 
fore not introduced into the depths of the annulus. However, more 
observation is needed to determine exactly the factors actually engaged 
in this apparently purposeful sealing of the annulus. 
The third and last protected period in the life of the sperm is that 
of discharge or removal from the annulus and approach to the eggs. 
At first it is not evident that the sperms could ever get out of the an¬ 
nulus and that they should be liberated at the time when eggs are near 
is remarkable. It is to be borne in mind that these sperms are not 
motile, or at the most but faintly so, and that they are injured by 
water. 
That the sperms are actually discharged is clearly demonstrable 
and that this takes place when the eggs are being laid seems clear 
from a number of observations. The annuli of forty-five females 
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