NOTE XIII., CHAPTER III., p. 135. THE SPERMATOZOA.

NOTE XIII., CHAPTER III., p. 135. THE SPERMATOZOA.

Since the discovery of the spermatozoa of the crayfish in 1835–36 by Henle and von Siebold. the structure and development of these bodies have been repeatedly studied. The latest discussion of the subject is contained in a memoir of Dr. C. Grobben (“Beiträge zur Kenntniss der männlichen Geschlechtsorgane der Dekapoden:” Wien, 1878). There is no doubt that the spermatozoon consists of a flattened or hemispherical body, produced at its circumference into a greater or less number of long tapering curved processes (fig. 34 F). In the interior of this are two structures, one of which occupies the greater part of the body, and, when the latter lies flat, looks like a double ring. This may be called, for distinctness’ sake, the annulate corpuscle. The other is a much smaller oval corpuscle, which lies on one side of the first. The annulate corpuscle is dense, and strongly refracting; the oval corpuscle is soft, and less sharply defined. Dr. Grobben describes the annulate corpuscle as “napfartig,” or cup-shaped; closed below, open above, and with the upper edge turned inwards, and applied to the inner side of the wall of the cup. It appeared to me, on the other hand, that the annulate corpuscle is really a hollow ring, somewhat {355} like one of the ring-shaped air-cushions one sees, on a very small scale. Dr. Grobben describes the spermatoblastic cells of the testis and their nuclear spindles; but his account of the development of the spermatozoa does not agree with my own observations, which, so far as they have gone, lead me to infer that the annulate corpuscle of the spermatozoon is the metamorphosed nucleus of the cell from which the spermatozoon is developed. For want of material, however, I was unable to bring my investigations to a satisfactory termination, and I speak with reserve.