VESICUL.E SEMINALES. 



1435 



becomes of the secretion of the testicles 

 when it is not used ? Another question also 

 requires to be answered. The semen, as will 

 be seen by referring to Art. SEMEN, seems to 

 be a highly elaborated secretion. There is 

 none amongst the various secretions of the 

 body that seems to require so much time for 

 its elaboration. Not only have cells to be 

 formed and thrown off, as in the case of other 

 secretions, but, after they are liberated in the 

 tubules of the testis, nuclei have to divide, 

 nutleoli to multiply, and each division of the 

 nucleoli to become, through a gradual adoles- 

 cence, an adult spermatozoon. This surely 

 requires time ; how can such a fluid be im- 

 provised at any moment when copulation may 

 take place ? 



To the first of these questions I would 

 answer, the testicles do not go on continually 

 secreting, but stop when there is no occasion 

 for their action ; as I have convinced myself 

 by observing, that the vas deferens is gene- 

 rally found empty in men who have been 

 long removed from the society of women. 

 Hunter arrives at the conclusion, that the vas 

 deft-rens and testicles can and do reabsorb the 

 unused semen, and that conclusion it is im- 

 possible to avoid, because there are many 

 instances on record of the vasa deferentia 

 being imperforate in a subject whose testicles 

 were in lull functional activity. But involun- 

 tary emissions in sleep are most probably the 

 usual and natural means whereby the burden 

 of unappropriated secretion is got rid of. 



The answer to the second question is as 

 follosvs. There is strong reason to believe 

 that man, in common with brutes, is subject 

 to a periodic rut, an alternation of sexual 

 excitement and quiescence, occurring at short 

 intervals. During the period of excitement 

 spermatozoa are becoming rapidly adult, the 

 testicles and their ducts are full of semen, the 

 individual is in the condition of a fish with a 

 full milt, or a bird or stag with enlarged tes- 

 ticles. He now instintively seeks the society 

 of women (these things are not so much mat- 

 ters of chance as is generally imagined, and the 

 testicles may be blameable for much of what 

 is usually ascribed to the heart). Lascivious 

 dalliance increases his excitement, and all is 

 ready for the copulative act. There is reason 

 to believe that one vas deferens alone furnishes 

 the semen for one copulation, the other vas 

 supplies another emission ; but after a few 

 encounters, some of them perhaps without 

 effect, a period of rest is required to secrete 

 and perfect a fresh store of semen. The 

 duct of the testicle is the only reservoir, and 

 for that reason, combined with the unlikeli- 

 hood of the impromptu secretion of semen, I 

 formed the opinion cited above, that the 

 quantity of actual secretion of the testicles 

 emitted in one copulation is probably so small 

 as to require augmentation by some congenial 

 fluid. 



Hunter remarks, " We have a presump- 

 tive proof that the semen can be absorbed in 

 the body of the testicle and in the epididydi- 

 mis, and that the vesiculas secrete a mucus 



which they are capable of absorbing when it 

 cannot be made use of. We may likewise 

 infer from what has been said, that the se- 

 men is not retained in reservoirs after it is 

 secreted, and kept there till it is used, but 

 that it is secreted at the time, in consequence 

 of certain affections of the mind stimulating 

 the testicles to this action ; for we find that 

 if lascivious ideas are excited in the mind, 

 and the paroxysm is afterwards prevented 

 from coming on, the testicles become pain- 

 ful and swelled, from, we may suppose, the 

 quantity of semen secreted, and the in- 

 creased action of the vessels, which pain and 

 swelling is removed immediately upon the 

 paroxysm being brought on and the semen 

 evacuated ; but, if that does not take place, 

 the action of the vessels will still be kept up, 

 and the pain in the testicles in general conti- 

 nue till the paroxysm and evacuation of the 

 semen is brought on, to render the act com- 

 plete ; without which a stop cannot be so 

 quickly put to the action of the vessels that 

 produce the secretion, nor the parts be al- 

 lowed so easily to resume their natural state. 

 There is at this time no sensation of any kind 

 felt in the seat of the vesiculae seminales, 

 which shows that the action is in the testicles, 

 and in them alone. The pain in the testicles, 

 in consequence of being filled with semen and,' 

 of the action being incomplete, is sometimes 

 so considerable as to make it necessary to 

 produce an evacuation of the semen to relieve 

 the patient." Hunter was not aware of the 

 highly elaborated character of the seminal 

 fluid, or he would probably not have so readily 

 accepted the idea of the semen being secreted 

 " at the time." The " lascivious ideas " which 

 he mentions are probably an effect or conco- 

 mitant of seminal repletion rather than a cause, 

 yet becoming, perhaps, an additional cause in 

 their turn. 



Many interesting arguments in relation 

 to this subject might doubtless be derived 

 from the manner of copulation of different 

 animals; but this is an occurrence in the 

 natural history of species which authors 

 have entirely left unnoticed, probably from 

 feelings of delicacy. This want is felt as a 

 great desideratum by the comparative anato- 

 mist, in investigating any of the accessory 

 parts of generation, where the manner of 

 coition unavoidably forces itself upon our 

 consideration, malgre the delicacy, which 

 everybody feels, but which the physiologist is 

 bound to suppress when he handles such sub- 

 jects. As a sample of such arguments I may 

 adduce the following. The prolonged coition 

 of the dog, which is destitute of vesiculae, was 

 formerly much dwelt upon in support of the 

 pre-Hunterian view of tne receptacle-function 

 of these sacs. But is the act prolonged in 

 every animal destitute of vesiculae ? 1 have 

 been told that the copulation of cats is very 

 quickly completed ; and cats are as destitute 

 of vesiculae as dogs. On the other hand, the 

 boar is very long in coition, although his vesi- 

 cular are very large and complicated. Such 

 reasonings on the facts of comparative anatomy 



