A PHYSICO-CHEMICAL THEORY OF FERTILIZATION.

<h3>INTRODUCTION.</h3> Within the last few years our conceptions of the physical state of protoplasm have undergone a series of changes in consequence of which a number of long-debated physiologic problems have been settled. No one advance has contributed nor promised to contribute more toward the understanding of certain cell phenomena, both from their morphologic and physiologic aspects, than the recognition of the colloidal nature of protoplasm. It is our purpose in the following pages to show, if possible, that the fertilization of the ovum by the spermatozoön represents another cell process which finds its explanation in the colloidal nature of the egg protoplasm, and it is to the arguments which point in this direction that we wish to call attention. As it is impossible in the limited time allowed to meet all the various criticisms which might be raised against our theory of fertilization, we would refer the interested listener