Citric A cid and Inositol 191 



Table 25. Individual variations in the composition of boar vesicular 

 secretion (Mann, 1954) 



(Analyses carried out separately on the fluids collected from the left 

 (L) and right (R) seminal vesicle of five boars, nos. I-V.) 



I II III V V 



(R) 2355 2610 2640 2345 2080 



Species. Bull semen is poor in inositol, and human semen, according 

 to Nixon (1952), contains usually less than 01%. 



Physiological function 



In the past, the physiological function of inositol has been 

 associated mainly with nutrition, particularly since Woolley's (1944) 

 important observations on the curative effect of inositol in a 

 dietary dystrophy in mice, coupled with retarded growth and 

 alopecia. Inositol has also been known to remedy a certain type 

 of fatty liver in rats (Gavin and McHenry, 1941; MacFarland and 

 McHenry, 1948), and its role as a lipotropic factor has been stressed 

 repeatedly. An observation, however, which merits particular atten- 

 tion in view of its bearing on animal reproduction, concerns a 

 peculiar disturbance in hamsters: if hamsters are raised on an 

 inositol-deficient diet, they tend to produce dead litters or die in 

 parturition (Hamilton and Hogan, 1944). Yet another aspect of the 



