THE TESTICLE AND THE OVARY 327 



which the testes, after removal, were attached to new positions and 

 still sufficed for the development of the sexual characters. In 

 attributing this r61e to the testes, Berthold appears also to have been 

 the first to assign an endocrine function to any bodily organ, thus 

 anticipating Claude Bernard and the numerous physiologists who 

 have succeeded him. 



It was not till some years later that Brown-Sequard ^ elaborated 

 the theory that the testis exercises an influence upon the general 

 metabolism through the internal secretion produced by it. He 

 based his conclusion to a large extent upon the beneficial effects 

 which he believed to accrue from the administration of testicular 

 extracts. These extracts were supposed to possess invigorating 

 properties, and could be usefully employed in cases of deficiency of 

 testicular substance, or in old age, when the testes lose their 

 functional activity. It is not unlikely that some of the effects 

 which Brown-S6quard attributed to the use of the extract were in 

 reality due to suggestion. 



The idea of a connection between testicular influence and 

 invigoration or rejuvenescence has lately been revived with reference 

 to the interstitial gland of the testis, and it has been claimed that 

 successful transplantation of this tissue into the aged has been 

 followed by beneficial results. Thus, Steinach ^ has described experi- 

 ments upon rats, which, after reaching a condition of senility and 

 impoteney and with the vesiculre seminales and other accessory male 

 organs undergoing atrophy, were restored to a state of vigour and 

 functional activity by the transplantation of interstitial testicular 

 tissue. Rejuvenescence could also be brought about as a result of 

 vasectomy, an operation which, as described below, results in the 

 eventual atrophy of the seminiferous tissue, but in the persistence or 

 even hypertrophy of the interstitial or " puberty gland," and according 

 to Steinach the same effects are produced by vasectomy in aged men. 

 In confirmation of Steinach, Sand ^ records an experiment upon a 



1 Brown-Sequard, " Du E61e physiologique et th6rapeutique d'un Sue extrait 

 de Testicules," Areh. de Physiol., 1889. 



^ Steinach, Verjilngwig durch experimentelle Ne^ihelehung der A Iternden 

 Pubertdtsdriise, Berlin, 1920 (reprinted from Arch. f. Entwicks.-Mech., vol. xlvi., 

 1920). According to the penal laws of Indiana (1907), California and 

 Connecticut (1909), in the United States of America, vasectomy may be carried 

 out on male criminals in order to prevent them propagating, while at the same 

 time not impairing their normal masculine vigour. I am indebted to the late 

 Viscount Bryce, at one time H.M. Ambassador to the United States of America, 

 for information on this subject (see Sharp, Jour. Amer. Med. Assoc, 4th December 

 1909). If Steinachis correct in believing that increased vigour and prolongation 

 of life may be a result of vasectomy, the policy of which these, laws are the 

 outcome is one of doubtful wisdom. At any rate some other way of inducing 

 sterility might be adopted. 



^ Sand, " Vasectomie pratiqu^e chez un Chien, etc.," C. R. de Soc. de Biol., 

 vol. Ixxxv., 1921. 



