CHAPTER X. 

 PATHOLOGY OF THE TESTICLES. 



FUNCTIONS OF THE TESTICLES. 



In 1889 Brown-Sequard maintained, before the Biolog- 

 ical Society, that the internal secretion of the testicle keeps 

 up physical and sexual strength. When these decrease, 

 under the influence of age or disease, they can be stimu- 

 lated by means of injections of the extracts. These ideas 

 had an immediate application: the introduction of testic- 

 ular extract in therapeutics, and an enormous variety of 

 conditions were treated by this medication. The results, 

 however, did not come up to the expectations and the 

 theory of Brown-Sequard as regards the testicular extract 

 was abandoned. 



To-day, the testicle is considered as having a double 

 secretion: an external or seminal secretion, resulting in 

 the elaboration of the cells of reproduction; the spermato- 

 zoa and an internal secretion controlling the evolution 

 of the sex. The histological investigations of Ancel, 

 Bouin and Loisel have enabled us to differentiate in the 

 testicle two different types of glands corresponding to 

 these two secretions. The seminal glands are made 

 up of the seminiferous tubules. The interstitial gland or 

 the gland of morphogenesis is represented by more or less 

 voluminous islands of large cells between the seminiferous 

 tubules and in the neighborhood of the blood vessels. 

 These cells have a glandular appearance. They contain 

 secretions: fats, crystals, granules, pigments, brought 

 out by various histological and chemical reactions and 

 soluble toxic materials, albuminoid in composition, which 

 have been demonstrated by physiological experimentation. 



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