332 OF THE GENITAL FUNCTION IN'* MAN. 



(H) Mr. Hunter's arguments are the following. 1. " The 

 semen, first discharged from the living body, is of a blucish 

 white colour, in consistence like cream, and similar to what is 

 found in the vasa deferentia after death ; while that which fol- 

 lows is somewhat like the common mucus of the nose, but less 

 viscid. The semen becomes more fluid upon exposure to the 

 air, particularly that first thrown out ; which is the very reverse 

 of what happens to secretions in general. The smell of the 

 semen is mawkish and unpleasant, exactly resembling that of 

 the farina of a Spanish chesnut ; and to the taste, though at first 

 insipid, it has so much pungency, as, after some little time) to 

 stimulate and excite a degree of heat in the mouth. But the 

 fluid contained in these vesiculse in a dead body, is of a brownish 

 colour, and often varies in consistence in different parts of the 

 bag, as if not well mixed. Its smell does not resemble that of 

 the semen, neither does it become more fluid by being exposed 

 to the air." On opening two men immediately after death, the 

 contents of the vesiculae were of a lighter colour than he usually 

 found them in persons who had been some time dead, and in one 

 of the instances so fluid as to run out upon cutting the vesiculse, 

 but they were similar to the semen neither in colour nor smell. 

 An examination of the vesiculae of the horse, boar, rat, beaver, 

 and guinea-pig, afforded the same results. In the last animal, 

 the contents near the fundus of the vesiculae were viscid, and 

 gradually firmer, till, near the opening into the urethra, they 

 were as solid as common cheese, and no such substance could 

 be detected in the vagina of the female after her union with the 

 male. 2. During lasciviousness, the testicles swell, and they 

 become painful, if the semen is not discharged ; in coition, it 

 may be added, they are drawn forcibly by the cremaster against 

 the pubes, as if to assist the discharge of their contents at the 

 period of emission. 3. In the old and debilitated, the vesiculze 

 are as full as in the young and vigorous. 4. Nay, in four men 

 who had each lost a testicle, the vesicula on one side was equally 

 full as on the other, although they had survived the operation a 



