A Note on the Morphology O F the Seminiferous Tubules of Birds

In the course of a study of the renal tubules of birds, by means of the maceration method devised by Huber,l in which full grown roosters (Gallus domestica) were used as material, the injection of the 75 per cent solution of hydrochloric acid was through the aorta central to the branches supplying the kidneys and sex glands. In a number of the cases the testes were found to be well injected and were removed and placed in 75 per cent hydrochloric acid with a view of obtaining thorough maceration preparatory to teasing. Following the method as described, the macerated pieces were washed thoroughly in distilled water, stained in hemalum, softened and cleared in 0.25 per cent to 0.5 per cent ammonia water, in which they were teased. Even during the preliminary teasing of the larger pieces it was noted that the testis of the rooster was not separable into lobular masse8, as is the case in mammalian testes, so that it was found impossible to isolate structural units with which the final teasing could be carried out. Huber and Curtis2 found that in the mammalian testis the seminiferous tubules presented no blind ends, diverticuli or nodular enlargements but were arranged in the form of an arch or a variable number of linked arches, all of the ends terminating