THE SEMEN. 181 



ART. VI. THE SEMEN. 



The seminal fluid, arrived at its perfect state, as when it 

 is ejaculated, is not a simple liquid, the secretion of a single 

 organ, but is compounded of the several products furnished, 

 though not in an equal proportion, by the testicle, the epi- 

 didymis, the vas deferens, the prostate gland, the glands 

 of Cowper, the vesiculae seminales, and the follicles of the 

 urethra. 



But the spermatic fluid is also in another sense a compound 

 product ; thus, like the fluids which have already been de- 

 scribed, it is made up of a liquid and a solid element, the 

 latter consisting of numerous organised particles suspended in 

 and diffused through the former ; these particles are of more 

 than one kind, and may be divided into those which are 

 essential and those which are non-essential : those which be- 

 long to the first category are the spermatozoa, the seminal 

 granules, and the spermatophori ; and those which appertain 

 to the second, are the mucous corpuscles and epithelial scales : 

 these last constituents occur but seldom, and are difficult to 

 discriminate from the seminal granules and the spermato- 

 phori. 



The spermatic fluid, resulting from the above combination 

 of solid and fluid elements, is then usually a thick semi- 

 opaque and gelatinous-looking substance, of a greyish, whitish, 

 or yellowish tint, and endowed with a peculiar and penetrating- 

 odour, which Wagner states does not belong to the sperm 

 previous to its departure from the testicle itself. 



It is, above all, the spermatozoa, from the liveliness of their 

 motions, the variety of their forms, the peculiaritv of their 

 developments, and their functional importance, which impart 

 interest to the study of the spermatic fluid, and which the 

 microscope has shown to occur in it in such vast numbers. 



