No. 561]
THE NINE-BANDED ABMADILLO
523
morphological peculiarity of the germ cells. In brief the
egg is a simple egg with one nucleus and is fertilized by a
single spermatozoon. Hence the embryo starts out as a
single and not as a multiple individual.
Fig. 4. A fertilized egg found in the fallopian tube, showing the male and
female pronuclei in contact and occupying the thickest part of the formative
protoplasm. There are two polar bodies. The deutoplasmic zone does not appear
in this section.
The claim of Eosner (’01), based on an examination
of one pair of ovaries inadequately preserved, that the
four embryos are the result of the fusion of several
follicles and the subsequent fusion of the several eggs
or vesicles given off by the rupture of a compound
follicle, is completely refuted by the present studies. It
may be of interest to show how Eosner came to fall into
so serious an error. The writer after the examination
of a large number of normal ovaries chanced upon one
pair showing substantially the conditions described by
Eosner. These ovaries were from a very large, old
female and when examined cytologically showed many
multiple follicles, containing from two to eight or more
ovocytes in various stages of development. Everything
about these ovaries, however, is atypical and there can be
no doubt as to their pathological character. That Eosner
should by chance have stumbled upon such an ovary and
that he drew a general conclusion as to the normal con-