SPERMATIC PARTICLES. 31 



V'alentin,* who thought he had seen traces of a higli organization in those of a bear, 

 which has since been shown to be a delusion ; of Gerber,t vviio was certain he per- 

 ceived organs of generation in those of the Cabiai ; of Schwann, J who thought he 

 perceived in those of man a sucking lip: of Pouchet,§ who fancied he saw a digestive 

 system, and has given figures to that effect. I cannot here stop to speak of the fanciful 

 figures found in the Suites a Biiffbn, where objects appear to liave been seen rather as 

 the observers would wish them to be seen, than as they really were. 



The whole amount of these observations seems to be based on the assumption, that, 

 as they were animals, they must at any rate have an animal structure, a view which the 

 philosophers (perhaps not their observations) bore out. To Wagner || and to Kollikerl 

 we are indebted for researches far more trustworthy, and which have shed a great 

 degree of light and interest uixin the subject. Most of what is really known about 

 these particles is referable to these men and their co-laborers. I shall not here refer 

 to the grounds in support of the view that they are not animals ; they will come up 

 more fittingly another time. 



I have thus, as a prologue, referred to the general condition of the subject, a digres- 

 sion which could hardly be excused, considering the vague manner in which it even 

 now presents itself to the minds of many. 



I should consider that I had not begun my subject at the beginning, did I not preface 

 the more minute details of microscopic structure with some general remarks upon the 

 secreting male or testicular organs, which alone, throughout the animal kingdom, are the 

 tissues from which these particular bodies are eliminated. 



Physiologically speaking, the testicles are, like all the other organs of the animal 

 body, endowed with a peculiar function, — simply a basement tissue, on which the 

 peculiar secreting tissues rest. And throughout the whole vertebrated kingdom this 

 secreting tissue has, anatomically, common characters, the differences of these organs 

 being traceable to the mode of the packing of the tissue, and the means for its more 

 or less constant production. As to this latter point, there is the same grade preserved 

 as appears in the other characters of the types. 



• Repertorium, 1837, p. 13t. 

 t Allgemeine Anatomic, p. 210. 

 X Mikroscopische Unlersuchungen. Berlin, 183&. 



§ Theorie positive de VOnilaiion sponlante et de la Fecondaiion, p. 321. Paris, 1847. 

 II Histoire de la Generation el du DereloppemenI, p. 26. Bruxelles, 1841. 



fl Beilrage zur Kennlniss der Geschlechts-Verhdltnisse und Samenflussigkeit Wirbelloser Thiere. Berlin, 

 1841. 



