'389 



becomes soluble, though it \vas not so at first. On being analyzed by M. 

 Vauquelin, it was found to contain of water 90 centimes of animal mu- 

 lage 6 phosphate of lime 3 soda 1. It is in consequence of this last 

 alkali, that it is enabled to turn syrup of violets to a green colour, The 

 animal mucilage is not pure albumine, but rather a gelatinous mucus, on 

 which the qualities of the semen appear particularly to depend, such as 

 its insolubility in water, its odour, and spontaneous liquefaction. 



On being examined with the microscope, the semen is seen to contain 

 small animalcules, with a rounded head, a tapering tail, and moving with 

 rapidity. Is the liquefaction of the glutinous and viscid parts of the 

 semen, owing to the motion of these creatures ? These microscope ani- 

 malcules are to be detected in the semen only at the period of puberty*. 

 It has been thought that they shunned the light: authors have even gone 

 the length of describing their ways and then' diseases. The imagination 

 has had much to do with all that naturalists have fancied they saw in 

 these creatures, which they made subservient to theirexplanationsof the 

 mechanism of reproduction* However, it must be confessed, that in all 

 the animal fluids, and in the juices of many plants, a certain number of 

 these animalcules may be detected by means of the microscope. 



A spasmodic contraction affects, during the expulsion of the semen, not 

 only the organs of generation, but the whole body participates in the con- 

 vulsive state, and the moment of emission is accompanied by a commotion 

 of all its parts ; so that it should seem, says Bordeu, that in that instant, 

 Nature forgot every other function, and was solely engaged in collecting 

 her strength and directing it to one organ. This general spasm, this, as 

 it were, epileptic convulsion, is followed by universal depression ; this 

 physical lassitude is attended with a sensation of sadness, which is not 

 without enjoyment. Does this peculiar sensation, which, according to 

 Lucretius, mingles grief with the most lively enjoyment of which we are 

 capable, depend on the fatigue of the organs, or, in truth, as some meta- 

 physicians have imagined, on the confused and distant notion that occurs 

 to the soul of its own dissolution ? 



^ The penis does not enter the uterus, though the semen does. The os 

 tincse offers too small a slit, and its thick edges are besides in contact. It 

 would be difficult to conceive that this straight passage should admit 

 even the animal fluid, if it were not known that in the moment of copu- 

 lation, the uterus, from, irritation, draws together, and inhales, by real 

 suction, the semen which it craves. Plato compared this organ to an ani- 



* The author states in his last edition, on the authority of one observer only, that ani- 

 malcule are not found in the semen of individuals affected with syphilis. He also ob- 

 serves, that he has frequently had reason in the course of his practice to impute sterility 

 in the male to the existence of the lues venerea ; this latter circumstance, however, may 

 be otherwise explained than by supposing that the seminal animalculae are not genera- 

 ted during- this disease. Indeed the existence of those animalcule is a matter of much 

 doubt. We believe that what has been usually supposed to be such, are nothing more 

 than the minute portions of some one of the very different secretions, mentioned above, 

 as constituting the seminal fluid, in the act of move intimate mechanical mixture, or of 

 union, with those of the others. The appearance of animalcules may be also exhibited 

 by the secretion of a single organ or part ; for, as all secreted fluids are not actually ho- 

 mogeneous, their minute particles, which differ in colour, consistence, &c. from the 

 more abundant and more aqueous portion, would very probably give rise to the decep- 

 tion in question. Copland. 



The recent researches of Prevost and Dundas have incontestibly established the fact 

 of the existence of these aTumalculse.Go 



