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Summary.: Capacitation in the golden hamster was studied by means of surgical insemination of two populations of spermatozoa into the independent uterine horns of individual animals, followed by examination of eggs 3, 4, 5 or 6 hr later. When epididymal spermatozoa were compared with ejaculated cells that had been incubated for 4 hr in an oestrous uterus, the temporal advantage of such incubation in terms of the subsequent penetration of eggs was less than 1 hr. Because some eggs were activated by epididymal spermatozoa as rapidly as any that had been exposed to the incubated sample in the contralateral tube, and because at least 3 hr was required following a period of uterine incubation before any eggs were activated, capacitation in the hamster would appear to take place principally in the Fallopian tube. The fact that incubation for 
hr conferred some advantage, though less than that following 4 hr of incubation, indicates that not only is a fairly rapid change initiated in the uterus, but that this is of a progressive nature over the interval examined. The temporal advantage derived from uterine incubation of ejaculated spermatozoa did not depend on the passage of constituents of the follicular or tubal fluids into the uterus, nor on the presence of seminal plasma. Incubations of epididymal spermatozoa to establish this point were not very successful, for such cells exhibited extremely poor motility after even a brief exposure to the uterus, thereby emphasizing the importance of the male secretions as a substrate and/or protective agent.
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