SHORTER ARTICLES AND DISCUSSION 



STERILITY 1 



The problem of sterility presents many points of interest to 

 the biologist, whether he be a clinician, breeder of plants or 

 animals or a pure biologist, both from n descriptive and an ex- 

 perimental aspect. By the physician, the failure of individuals to 

 produce children in marriage is designated by this name, although 

 the causes may be widely at variance in different eases. Thus, 

 the failure may be due to the impotence of the male, induced 

 by a variety of causes, such as congenital impotence, where sex 

 cells are not formed, although the organs themselves may be 

 apparently normal; or evident deformities may occur such as 

 the failure of one or both testes to descend (eryptorchism) ; 

 again, impotence may be induced by disease, such as gonorrhoea, 

 syphilis and the like; or again, through presenile debility caused 

 by excessive activity of the organs concerned. On the other 

 hand, the failure to produce offspring may be due to the corre- 

 sponding impotence of the female, or it may result from wholly 

 secondary causes, such as the failure of the ovum to become fixed. 

 All of these eases are grouped, collectively, under the term ster- 

 ility. Very frequently a simple operation upon the uterus of 

 the female is sufficient to cause the ovum to become fixed, so that 

 subsequent ovulations, accompanied by fertilization, result in 

 nffs pi-i ue- and the sterility disappears. With congenilnl sterility, 

 where no sex cells are formed, the case is obviously different, 

 for the condition there is permanent. Cases of congenital ste- 

 rility seem to be rare, although it is exceedingly difficult to 

 obtain concise data upon the subject. The impotence caused by 

 disease may, in time, disappear, especially if the ravages of the 

 disease have not destroyed the germ cells, as is often the case. 

 An impotence ascribed to psychical causes may rarely occur, but 

 concerning this factor, we have, obviously, little or no exact 

 evidence. 



The sterility induced in crossing animals and plants belonging 

 to different varieties and species has long been known. The 



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