The formation of the sex glands and germ cells of mammals. II. The history of the male germ cells in the albino rat

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AbstractThe testis is differentiated from the indifferent gonad in embryos of fourteen days. The indifferent gonad and the sex cords contain large and small cells, both of which are derived from the coelomic epithelium. The large cells have generally been called primordial germ cells, they increase by mitosis and reach their maximum in embryos of seventeen days. But all the large cells degenerate and have completely disappeared by nine days after birth. The large cells, therefore, do not contribute to the formation of cells in the tubules of the adult testis. After the disappearance of the large cells, the solid seminiferous tubules are composed of indifferent epithelial cells of a uniform type, which are descendants of the small cells of the genital ridge, and which later form both the germ cells and the Sertoli cells of the seminiferous tubules of the adult testis.Definitive spermatogonia begin to form fifteen days after birth, when the solid cords are becoming hollow tubules; spermatocytes occur at twenty‐three days, when the testes are entering the inguinal canals; spermatids are first observed about thirty‐three days, when the testes enter the scrotum, and perfect spermatozoa at forty‐eight days. Sertoli cells cannot be clearly distinguished until almost puberty; these cells may be only indifferent epithelial cells. During the development of the seminiferous tubules, a good many cells of all stages of spermatogenesis degenerate.