The Recognition of a New Category of Structures in Spermatogenesis

Abstract

IN connexion with some work which Dr. Sylvia Wigoder and I are carrying out, it became necessary to re-examine the spermatogenesis of Cavia. By chilling the Da Fano fluid (5° C.) it was possible to get extremely good and unshrunken preparations. These rovealed a remarkable argentophile band on the ripe sperms (Fig. 1, PNB), which was easily traced back into the spermatid (Fig. 2, No. 13, PNG) in the form of a group of granules, which constituted in the later spermatid (Fig. 2, No. 14) a sort of coalescing network embracing the hinder part of the nucleus. This reminded me of similar structures already described in Saccocirrus (Q.J.M.S., 1922, and Fig. 2, Nos. 1 and 2, PNB) and in a number of pulmonate mollusca (ibid., 1919, and Fig. 2, Nos. 3 and 4, PNG, post-nuclear granules).