(FIGURE 1.14. The human ovum, taken from the female ovary, magnified 500 times. The whole ovum is a simple round cell. The chief part of the globular mass is formed by the nuclear yelk (deutoplasm), which is evenly distributed in the active protoplasm, and consists of numbers of fine yelk-granules. In the upper part of the yelk is the transparent round germinal vesicle, which corresponds to the nucleus. This encloses a darker granule, the germinal spot, which shows a nucleolus. The globular yelk is surrounded by the thick transparent germinal membrane (ovolemma, or zona pellucida). This is traversed by numbers of lines as fine as hairs, which are directed radially towards the centre of the ovum. These are called the pore-canals; it is through these that the moving spermatozoa penetrate into the yelk at impregnation. FIGURE 1.15. A fertilised ovum from the oviduct of a hen. the yellow yelk (c) consists of several concentric layers (d), and is enclosed in a thin yelk-membrane (a). The nucleus or germinal vesicle is seen above in the cicatrix or "tread" (b). From that point the white yelk penetrates to the central yelk-cavity (d apostrophe). The two kinds of yelk do not differ very much. FIGURE 1.16. A creeping amoeba (highly magnified). The whole organism is a simple naked cell, and moves about by means of the changing arms which it thrusts out of and withdraws into its protoplasmic body. Inside it is the roundish nucleus with its nucleolus.) When the mature bird-ovum has left the ovary and been fertilised in the oviduct, it covers itself with various membranes which are secreted from the wall of the oviduct. First, the large clear albuminous layer is deposited around the yellow yelk; afterwards, the hard external shell, with a fine inner skin. All these gradually forming envelopes and processes are of no importance in the formation of the embryo; they serve merely for the protection of the original simple ovum. We sometimes find extraordinarily large eggs with strong envelopes in the case of other animals, such as fishes of the shark type. Here, also, the ovum is originally of the same character as it is in the mammal; it is a perfectly simple and naked cell. But, as in the case of the bird, a considerable quantity of nutritive yelk is accumulated inside the original yelk as food for the developing embryo; and various coverings are formed round the egg. The ovum of many other animals has the same internal and external features. They have, however, only a physiological, not a morphological, importance; they have no direct influence on the formation of the foetus. They are partly consumed as food by the embryo, and partly serve as protective envelopes. Hence we may leave them out of consideration altogether here, and restrict ourselves to material points--TO THE SUBSTANTIAL IDENTITY OF THE ORIGINAL OVUM IN MAN AND THE REST OF THE ANIMALS (Figure 1.13).