94 INFLUENCE OF HORMONES 



while the interstitial cells were enormously developed, 

 by compensatory hypertrophy in consequence of the 

 removal of the other testis. At the same time the 

 male instincts and the other generative organs were 

 unchanged. In a few cases, however, Ancel and 

 Bouin observed atrophy of the interstitial cells as 

 well as the spermatic cells. They believe this is due 

 to the nerves supplying the testis being included in 

 the ligature. This is rather a surprising conclusion 

 in view of the fact that testicular grafts show active 

 spermatogenesis. It is difficult to understand why 

 nerve connection should be necessary for the in- 

 terstitial cells and not for the spermatic, and, 

 moreover, if the interstitial cells* are really the 

 source of the hormone on which the somatic char- 

 acters depend, they must be acting in the grafts in 

 which the nerve connections have been all severed. 



The facts concerning cryptorchidism, that is to 

 say, failure of the descent of the testes in Mammals, 

 seem to show that the hormone of the testis is not 

 derived from semen or spermatogenesis, for in the 

 testes which have remained in the abdomen there is 

 no spermatogenesis, while the interstitial cells are 

 present, and the animals in some cases exhibit 

 normal or even excessive sexual instinct, and all the 

 male characteristics are well marked. It may be 

 remarked, however, in criticism of this conclusion 

 that the descent of the testes being itself a somatic 

 sexual character of the male, its failure when the 

 interstitial cells are normal and the spermatic cells 

 defective, would rather tend to prove that the 

 defect of the latter is itself the cause of cryptor- 

 chidism. 



Many investigators have found that the Rontgen 



