VARIATION OF NORMAL GERM CELLS. STUDIES IN AGGLUTINATION

¹ FROM THE COLLEGE OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK

1. Arbacia were freshly collected, freshly opened, the "best" eggs selected and immediately tested for agglutination time. The technique gave for duplicate tests, or for tests of aliquot portions of eggs, a difference in agglutination time of 0 to 4 seconds with an average difference of 1 second or 4.5 per cent. This is the experimental error.

2. (a) Eggs from different females when tested separately, under strictly comparable conditions, by the same sperm suspension from a single male, gave extremely wide differences in agglutination time, namely, 2 to 55 seconds or 9 to 1,300 per cent. Eggs that gave high agglutination values with one sperm gave consistently high, though not the same values with sperm from other males.

(b) These variations in agglutination time corresponded with the variations in size, color and shape of eggs, loss of jelly, rate and per cent. of membrane formation, rate and per cent. of cleavage. All of them measure degrees of deterioration or over-ripening prior to shedding. Hence agglutination time may be used as another quantitative measure of deterioration of eggs.

(c) "Shed" eggs gave lower agglutination values and are less variable than "ovary" eggs, as defined, due to larger number of overripe eggs in the "ovary eggs."

(d) Severe storms and other adverse conditions that delay spontaneous shedding tend to deteriorate the eggs within the body, with corresponding changes in agglutination values.

3. (a) Suspensions of sperm from different males, in the same concentration, tested with the same egg water also gave a surprising amount of variation. They varied from 11 to 3,300 per cent.

(b) Sperm which gave high agglutination values with the eggs of one female gave consistently high, though not the same, values with eggs of other females. Sperm with low agglutination values gave low values with other females.

4. These large differences in agglutinability of different freshly shed sperms are due to corresponding physiologic deterioration or overripening prior to shedding.

5. The large differences in freshly shed eggs from different females is in small part due to genetic differences in agglutinin production, in largest part to deterioration of eggs within the body, prior to shedding.

6. Chronologically fresh, i.e., "normal" germ cells may range from physiologically fresh to extremely overripe germ cells.