iv THE GENEEATIVE SYSTEM OF THE MALE 155 



Loewy (1907) led to the result that something iii common 

 exists between the action of spermiue and testicular juice ; that 

 it is one of the active principles which exist in the testicular 

 substance, specially as regards its influence on metabolism. But 

 many other observers have not confirmed as constant the effects 

 attributed to spermine by Poehl, and have advised that treatment 

 with testicular substance is not free from after-effects and danger. 

 Salvioli (1902) described a number of unfavourable symptoms 

 produced on the nervous system by injections of testicular juice ; 

 restlessness, vomiting, constipation, lowering of arterial pressure, 

 slow coagulability of the blood. Dixon (1901) observed also 

 respiratory and vasomotor disturbances. He attributed these 

 toxic effects to a nucleoliiston which can be precipitated from the 

 testicular juice by sodium chloride. 



The initiative of Brown-Sequard served in any case to recall 

 the attention of physiologists to the already described correlations 

 of the testicles with the other organs. To decide whether they 

 depend on nervous reflexes or on factors of a chemical nature 

 (hormones) due to an internal secretion, attempts to transplant 

 the testicles were made some time ago by Hunter, and repeated 

 by Bertholt (1849), Paid. Wagner (1851), and in more recent 

 times by Gobel (1898), Herlitzka (1889), C. Foa (1901), but 

 always with negative results ; the grafting or survival of the 

 transplanted organ did not succeed. Positive results, however, 

 were obtained by Lode (1895) and Hanau (1902) in cocks, with 

 the transplantation of only one testicle under conditions, that is, 

 of incomplete castration. Foges (1902) transplanted with success 

 both testicles in six cocks, and observed that they did not assume 

 the appearance of capons, but preserved the secondary sexual 

 characteristics of the intact cock. When he left a portion of the 

 testicle but did not perform transplantation, he observed that 

 the cocks assumed a type intermediate between the cock and the 

 capon, resembling the first in the plumage and carriage of the 

 tail, the second in the development of the comb and gills. These 

 results are evidence in favour of an internal secretion of the 

 testicles, for these organs were separated by transplantation from 

 their nervous connections. 



Another series of experiments carried out by Loewy and 

 Kichter on dogs (1899) demonstrated that castration diminishes, 

 after some days, the intensity of the exchange of material as 

 shown by the amounts of oxygen absorbed and carbon dioxide 

 discharged in a given time. This decline increases with time 

 to a certain limit, which then apparently remains constant. A 

 castrated dog was under observation for three years and a half, 

 and the diminution of the respiratory exchange, about 14 per cent 

 of the initial value per kilogramme of weight, was maintained almost 

 unaltered during all that time. The phenomenon is observed 



