526 DAVID I. MACHT 



dinary nerver endings, some special bulbous structures of great interest. 



As is well known, the secretion of the prostate gland is a thin, cloudy, 

 milky fluid, slightly alkaline in reaction, possessing a characteristic odor. 

 The secretion contains albuminous bodies and occasional so-called amyloid 

 corpuscles, but no mucin. 



The size of the prostate gland varies enormously in different species 

 of animals and also at different ages of the same individual animals. 



Physiological Considerations 



The variations of the development of the prostate gland at different 

 ages of life suggest at once a relationship between its function and the 

 sexual life of the animal. This is further corroborated by the interesting 

 observation that the prostate gland is comparatively very much larger in 

 those animals which are highly reproductive than in others which are 

 much less so. Thus, for instance, the prostate glands of the rat, guinea 

 pig and rabbit are much larger in proportion to the weight of those animals 

 than the prostates of cats, dogs, oxen, horses or men. The author has 

 often extirpated the prostates of rats and found them to weigh as much as 

 200 mg. or more, or about 1/500 of the total weight of the animal. One 

 need only compare this figure with the average weight of the prostate in 

 man, which is about 1/2,000 of the weight of the body, to appreciate this 

 enormous difference. 



The preceding observations have led investigators to suspect that the 

 prostatic secretion bears a direct relation to the life of spermatozoa, and 

 this is the one positive physiological fact in regard to the function of the 

 prostate gland that has been established by the work of Fiirbringer, Stein- 

 ach (a), Exner, and, more recently, George Walker. 



Evidences of an Internal Secretion. While the above properties of 

 the external secretion have been regarded as the sole function of the 

 prostate gland, as, for instance, succinctly described by Bogdanow, the 

 increasing importance of the new science of endocrinology directed the 

 attention of various investigators to a possible internal secretion of the 

 organ. The earliest evidence in favor of such a view was advanced by 

 two French observers, Serralach and Pares, in 1907. These authors 

 found that after extirpation of the prostate glands in do<rs there was a 

 cessation of the secretion of the preputial glands, a temporary cessation 

 of spermatogenesis and testicular atrophy. These phenomena could be 

 prevented by the injection of glycerin extracts of the prostate. Apparent 

 significance of the work of these observers was somewhat diminished by 

 the criticism of Haberern, who called attention to the fact that it is 

 practically impossible to extirpate completely the prostate gland in dogs. 



