36S OF CONCEPTION 



were in no one instance impregnated. Hence I conclude, with the 

 old physiologists before the time of Harvey, that the conveyance 

 of semen beyond the vagina, — where it may come in contact 

 with the contents of an ovarian vesicle, is absolutely requisite to 

 impregnation ; and perhaps the state of the tubes during the heat 

 of some brutes (page 364), and the occasional growth of foetuses in 

 the tubes, abdomen, and in the ovaria themselves,* render it likely 

 that the semen passes even into the tubes. But Dr. Haighton's 

 experiments were unnecessary for this conclusion, because patho- 

 logical observation proves sterility to be an invariable conse- 

 quence of complete obstruction in any point between the 

 os externum and ovaria, — in the Fallopian tubes, in the uterus, 

 or in the vagina.f 



When the obstruction in such cases is so far within as to allow 

 the deposition of the semen, the sterility disproves the notion of 

 Bartholin and Stenonis, — that this fluid operates by absorption. 



* The foetus has frequently remained in the ovarium. See, for instance, the 

 PAH. Tram. 1680-3. and 1797. also Schurig's Embryologia. p. 824 sq. where 

 Bohn, Grundius, Ortlob, Blasius, and Littre, are quoted. 



Such cases do not militate against the probability of the approximation of the 

 semen masculinum to the ovarian contents being necessary for impregnation, 

 because the tenuity of the vesicles, when ready for this operation, is such as 

 we may suppose presents no barrier to the influence of the male upon the 

 female fluid, especially if wc reflect that oxygen and blood affect each other 

 through a piece of bladder, (ii. F.). Indeed it is possible even that the 

 vesicle bursts and the two fluids come into actual contact, but that imperfect 

 rupture or some other cause detains the ovarian fluid till it has acquired per- 

 manent adhesions. 



f Schurig, Gyntecologia. pare. ij. p. 172. Morgagni, Ruysch, &c. &c. 



Dr. Blundel has lately repeated Dr. Haighton's experiments, with this unim- 

 portant variation, that he produced the obstruction not in the tubes, but in the 

 uterus and vagina. Impregnation was of course equally prevented and the ova- 

 rian vesicle* burst as usual. Med. Chir. Trans, vol. x. 



