THE SEMIXAL FLUID. 



943 



acid -f- protamin), lecithin, cholesterin, fats, also fat containing phos- 

 phorus, and of salts (somewhat more than 2 per cent.) particularly 

 alkaline and earthy phosphates, together with sulphates, catenates and 

 chlorids. 



The testicle contains besides a hyaline-like albuminous body, leucin, tyrosin, 

 kreatin,. xanthin -bodies, inosite and glycogen (starch-like granules in birds). 



The tenacious, whitish-yellow seminal fluid, for the greater part a mixture 

 of the secretions from the organs previously mentioned, is, on exposure to air, 

 at first coagulated into a gelatinous mass, then becomes again diffluent, on addition 

 of water gelatinous and separating in the form of whitish, translucent flocculi. 

 It forms, on standing for some time, elongated tapering, rhombohedral crystals 

 that consist of the phosphate of an organic base, spermin (C 5 H ]4 N 2 ), which results 

 on the decomposition of nuclein. 







FIG. 354. Spermatozoa: i, human (X 600), the head viewed from the surface; 2, the head viewed from the side; 

 k, head; m, middle piece; /, tail; e, terminal filament (after Retzius); 3, spermatozoon from the mouse; 

 4, from bothriocephalus latus; 5, from the deer; 6, from the mole; 7, from the green woodpecker; 8, from 



the black swan; Q, from the bastard of a goldfinch (male) and a canary bird (female); 10, from the cobitis 

 (weather-fish) (after A. Ecker). 



These crystals (Fig. 353) are derived in part also from the prostatic fluid (and 

 they resemble the so-called Charcot's crystals observed in sputum). A small 

 amount of seminal fluid (also stains dissolved in water) , heated with a concentrated 

 watery solution of iodin and potassium iodid, yields a crystalline formation (not 

 unlike hemin-crystals) . The formation is caused by a step in the disintegration 

 of lecithin. Also other bodies containing lecithin form, through putrefaction, 

 neurin, cholin and other decomposition-products and then yield the same reaction. 



The prostatic fluid is a thin, milky fluid, amphoteric or of a feebly acid reaction, 

 and it possesses the odor of the seminal fluid, which is given off by the base of 

 Schreiner in solution . The phosphoric acid necessary to the formation of the crys- 

 tals is supplied by the semen. Perhaps the prostatic'secretion furnishes to the sper- 

 matozoa the motor stimulation essential for their power of impregnation. The ovary, 

 the thyroid gland, the spleen, the pancreas and the leukocytes likewise contain 

 spermin, though in less amount. An odor similar to that of the seminal fluid 

 is possessed by Brieger's cadaverin (pentamethyldiamin), a nontoxic cadaveric 



