RAYMOND PEARL (1917) made the statement that “anything which upsets the general metabolic balance or impairs the vitality of either partner of a mating will show its effect in a diminished hatching power of the eggs from that mating.” Thus in a general way it has been felt for a long time that both the producer of the gamete rich in cytoplasm (the egg) and the producer of the gamete poor in cytoplasm (the sperm) are directly responsible for the fertility and prolificacy of the mating into which their products enter. The life cycle of the gametes themselves and the effect of impairment of their vitality upon the zygote have not been extensively investigated until recently. Blandau and Young (1939) and Blandau and Jordan (1941) presented extensive experimental evidence that the rat ovum and the guinea pig ovum do not die abruptly but retain the ability to be fertilized beyond . . .
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Nalbandov et al. (1943) studied this question.