Medical counsellings, or the green book. The modern treatment of syphilis, urethral affections, and all diseases of the urinary and sexual organs ... with original papers on ... incontinence ... impuissance, sterility, etc / [Robert James Culverwell].

  • Culverwell, Robert James, 1802-1852
Date:
1841
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Medical counsellings, or the green book. The modern treatment of syphilis, urethral affections, and all diseases of the urinary and sexual organs ... with original papers on ... incontinence ... impuissance, sterility, etc / [Robert James Culverwell]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    30/310 (page 12)
    advise such examinations as the surest means of obtaining, in a state of purity, the seminal fluid. (32). The Male Semen is a fluid of a starch-ish consistency and of a whitish colour. It has a peculiar odour, “ like that of a bone while being filed—of a styptic and rather acrid taste,” (for physiologists use more senses than one in these researches,) “ and of greater specific gravity than any other fluid of the body.” Shortly after its escape “ it becomes liquid and translucent;” if suf- fered to evaporate, it dries into scurfy-looking substance. By being examined through a powerful microscope it is ascertained to be animated by an infinite number of animalcules ; but they are only present in healthy semen, and con- sequently that fact is taken as a criterion of the virility of the secretion. The method recommended to be employed in this investigation, is to procure a small quantity of fresh male semen, and to dilute the same with albumen; the mix- ture is then to be placed in the usual way between two thin plates of glass, and exposed to a strong magnifying power, when a little world in motion is per- ceptible. The objects seen present different appearances: some consist of (33) “ minute, round, granulated bodies,” called seminal granules; others, (34) “ little oval bodies with very fine tails of the length of 3-100,000th of an inch, their bulk such as to admit the existence of 216,000 in a sphere whose diameter was the breadth of a hair !!” “ and their rate of travelling nine inches in an hour.” Somewhat of the marvellous must be expected and allowed in these speculations; but recent authorities insist upon the actual presence of some such creations, and as the narrator is expected to venture his belief or withhold his credence from such assertions, the reader is assured that (the writer) is not an obstinate sceptic, but can confirm and prove the existence of living motion therein; A higher published authority* thus describes the germ of future animal life ; “ The seminal granules are colourless bodies with dark outlines, round and somewhat flattened in shape, and measuring from 1-300 to 1-500th of a line in diameter.” “ The animalcules exist in the semen of all animals capable of procreation. They are diversified in form in all animals according to their species, but in man they are extremely small, scarcely sur- passing the l-50th, or almost the l-40th of aline in length. This transparent and flattened body seldom exceeds from the l-6th to the 1-800th of a line in length.” It may be wondered at or doubted, whether the microscope can attest to these statements, but the public are sufficiently acquainted with its powers, as exhibited at the various exhibitions in the metropolis, to place faith in the statement. * Dr. Wagner, of the University of Gottingen.