season approaches. In the sparrow, at this season, the long diameter of the testes is twelve times greater than at any other time of the year. (Cuvier, "Anatomie Comparée," tome viii, p. 110.) The testicles of the stag enlarge; so do those of the ram; and account for the astonishing performances of the latter animal, as mentioned at page 119. As soon as the rutting season is over, the organs gradually return to their previous state. It appears to be a wise provision of nature, that, at the period of the year when enlargement of the testes has subsided, the stag's horns fall off, and the blood, previously occupied in secreting the semen, is diverted to the horns, there to nourish the immense mass of new bone which has to be secreted in eleven weeks. On the subject of the shedding of the stag's horns, the late Mr. Thompson told me that the rutting season occurs in the months of September and October-it lasts about six weeks. The horns are shed about February. They are about three months in growing, during which time the animal is very poor. As soon as the velvet peels off, the animal recovers its flesh, which we prefer in June and July. I argue, then, that if, in imitation of nature, we can by gymnastics create in men a demand for a larger supply of blood to the muscular system, blood will be averted from the sexual organs to the muscles, as suggested at p. 32, in treating of sexual diseases. Licentious reading and idleness will induce a great secretion of semen, while strong exercise and moderate diet, with intellectual employment, or any absorbing study, will completely, for the time, paralyze it. Persons frequently fancy that they have become suddenly impotent, whereas the non-secretion of semen depends, as the sequel proves, upon some such transient cause as that above mentioned; for as soon as they return to their usual habits the impotence ceases. It may not be out of place here to mention that there are many persons who have but one testis. In such instances a nodule will be found, often not larger than a horse-bean, taking the place of the atrophied organ. The atrophy is generally the sequel of injudiciously treated inflammation. In these cases, the remaining testis becomes much larger than common. PART II. DISORDERS AFFECTING THE SEMEN. We have now to consider the unhealthy condition which, by influencing the semen, may interfere with the due performance of the sexual act. SECT. I.-INFECUNDITY—UNFRUITFULNESS-BARRENNESS. Though the terms are often used loosely as synonymous "want of power to produce its like" (Barclay)—unfruitfulness (infécundité) is not impotence. A man may be unable to beget children, and yet not be impotent, though an impotent man is, of course, unable to beget children. This state may last a short time, or it may be permanent. Rest may give the semen time to become perfect, or ripen, and the spermatozoa will appear and become mature. Stricture, again, as we have seen, may make a man practically sterile, and so may other affections of the testes or generative organs. Not that infecunditymeaning by that term the lack of children-necessarily rests with the man alone. The cause of non-impregnation may be wholly or partially in the female. INFECUNDITY IN THE MALE.-The most interesting examinations illustrating this subject are those made by Dr. Davy, Assistant-Inspector of Army Hospitals, at the General Military Hospital at Fort Pitt, and published in 1858, in the "Edinburgh Medical and Surgical Journal" for July, vol. 1, p. 1. From this paper I have condensed the following table. The details are given at great length, as well as the causes of death; the post-mortem appearances, not only of the organs generally, but a minute examination of the secretions found in the vesicule seminales, as well as the microscopical character of their contents, are given. The object-glass used was one of one-eighth inch focal distance, constructed by Moss. Slightly viscid; brown tint 27 Partly thick, and partly thin 27 Few spermatozoa, but glob ules 27 Starchy Few animalcules; not brown Healthy, with few spermatic Gelatinous; well-formed an-No distinct animalcules, glo 29 30 Similar to that in vasa def. 31 11 4 10 32 12 3 Numerous animalcules in 6 and 48 active motion Fluid thick at fundus, in the Globules and fragments 17 interior fluid Small in quantity, brown, Dilute, purulent- animal Small in quantity; no ani- 33 Globules; no animalcules Showed no animalcules; no Small particles, large glo- Minute globules; no ani- 6 and 36 Gelatinous; no animalcules Of a cream or purulent color; no animalcules Mucilaginous; many ani- Particles,but no animalcules 38 and 58 malcules Slightly opaque; abundant A few animalcules 37 Animalcules abundant, dead Abundant animalcules, live- 10 and 17 in seventeen hours 27 Cream or purulent appear 16 ance 22 animalcules Few animalcules 32 15 cules few 26 Purely purulent, with glo 2 bules; no animalcules 6 5 It would appear from the above examinations that there is but little difference in the microscopic character of the fluid found in the vasa deferentia and in the vesiculæ seminales. In the vasa the quantity is smaller, and appears to be in transition from the testes, where it was secreted, into the vesiculæ, where it is retained, and mixed with other secretions. The fluid found in the vasa deferentia is generally creamy or purulent looking, and is liquid and small in quantity. That found in the vesicule is more abundant, of a brownish color-the less brown the sooner examined after death-and is occasionally tinged with blood. This last, however, may depend upon post-mortem appearances. The two vesicule may differ in the quantity of fluid they contain. One may be empty, the other more or less distended. In consistence the fluid in the vesiculæ varies, being sometimes. thin like starch, but more frequently thick, viscid, and gelatinous. After standing a few hours it separates into two parts, one which subsides is opaque, while the other is transparent; the latter is copiously precipitable by alcohol, and becomes almost gelatinous. From the above tables it appears that the spermatozoa, or spermatic animalcules, were found equally in the vesiculæ seminales. and in the vasa. It is curious to remark that, in all the cases in which spermatozoa were found in the vasa deferentia, similar animalcules were found in the vesiculæ seminales. In cases in which the body was examined a few hours after death, the spermatozoa were found alive, and moving actively, while in a few hours later they were motionless and dead, and warmth had no effect in reanimating them. In some cases the animalcules were not perfect, portions only of imperfect spermatozoa being found. In other cases no animalcules could be discovered either in the vasa deferentia or vesiculæ; they were replaced by large or minute globules, small particles, or fragments. The age of the individual appeared to have little to do with this condition of the spermatozoa, or indeed with their presence, numbers, or total absence. It is curious further to remark, that although spermatozoa were found frequently in the vesiculæ and vasa deferentia, they were only found twice in the testes. The fluid expressed from the testes was transparent, generally contained globules nearly equal in diameter to the blood. corpuscles, and invariably contained dense particles, apparently spherical, from ten to fifteen times smaller. "Dr. Davy thinks, first, that chronic wasting diseases terminating in death arrest the secretion of the testes, or the production of those animalcules on which there is much reason to believe the active powers of the semen depends. Secondly, that the contents of the vesicula and vasa deferentia, under the influence of disease, retain longer their characteristic qualities than the contents of the tubuli; and, thirdly, that there is least fluid in the vesicule and in the vasa deferentia, and that it is most altered in instances of chronic diseases of the abdominal viscera, and especially of the intestines."-Edinburgh Med. and Surg. Jour., vol. 1, p. 14. Dr. Davy considers that, admitting the fact that the vesiculæ are, like the gall-bladder and bladder of urine, recipients, it may be viewed as a fortunate circumstance in our economy, and admirably adapted to the condition of man. Like the bile or the urine, so the spermatic fluid in the healthy adult appears to be in constant process of secretion, and to pass as it is formed into its appropriate reservoir, from whence, without disturbance of the system, in a state of continence, it is either passed out and voided during the act of alvine evacuation, or is in part absorbed. "Mr. Hunter, in accordance with the opinion which he had formed of the use of the vesiculæ, did not admit this. He believed that the fluid rather accumulated in the testes, and gave rise there to annoyance requiring its evacuation by a disturbing act-a dangerous doctrine, and one for which there is, to modern science, no sufficient evidence. In opposition to the doctrine of Hunter, I may further state that I have frequently examined microscopically the fluid from the urethra, following the alvine evacuations, and I have always found it, in a healthy person, abounding in animalcules, the majority of which have always been dead; and thus, perhaps, seeming to indicate that the visiculæ are cloaca as well as reservoirs, and are essentially designed for man to enable him to control and to exercise that moral check on the passions by which he should be distinguished from brute animals, and without which no considerable advance can be made in civilization or in elevation of individual condition and character."-Edinburgh Med. and Surg. Jour., vol 1, p. 14. The most obvious deduction from the foregoing inquiries is that the seminal fluid varies much in different subjects, at different times and at different ages. Thus, it may be more or less matured, and elaborated, and it may be secreted in larger or smaller quantities. I do not think sufficient attention has been paid to these circumstances. The quality of the semen, and the exhaustion of the system which secretes it, must have a great influence on the progeny. May not the fact, observed by all ages, that the children of great men are not usually equal to their sire, depend, among other causes, upon the deterioration of the impregnating fluid in the parent from the great mental demand upon him at the time impregnation took place? May not many of the weedy horses we see be the fruit of an exhausted and overworked sexual system in the |