ABSTRACT
When an egg is fertilized, well-defined morphological changes occur. In spite of this, physico-chemical differences between fertilized and unfertilized eggs have been difficult to find. Nor have the increases in permeability and metabolic rate found in certain eggs been shown to be of general incidence. Investigations of the electrical properties of eggs are few, and the results have been inconclusive and contradictory.
Chemical asymmetry across an interphase is, of course, not necessarily associated with an asymmetrical distribution of electrical charge.
The jelly was removed by washing with sea water.
This procedure indicates whether any observed potential is due to an external e.m.f. or to an artifact caused by a high resistance in the preparation or electrodes (see p. 213).
Sometimes this process is not visible, but it presumably does happen.
