Volume 1

Elements of physiology : for the use of students, and with especial reference to the wants of practitioners / Tr. from the German, with additions by Robert Willis.

  • Wagner, Rudolph, 1805-1864.
Date:
1841-2
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Elements of physiology : for the use of students, and with especial reference to the wants of practitioners / Tr. from the German, with additions by Robert Willis. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Leeds Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Leeds Library.

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    Wind up these anatomico-physiological notices with a general ac- count of the forms of the sexual system, in the course of which the usual amount of knowledge of human anatomy will be presumed. We shall then proceed to consider the phenomena that accompany the encounter of the two matters essential to generation, parti- cularly describing the general occurrences of the first moment of the generative act, which afford an explanation of some questions connected with the subject ^ CHAPTER I. ANALYSIS OF THE GERM-PREPARING SEXUAL ORGANS, AND THEIR PRODUCTS. MICROSCOPIC ANALYSIS OF THE SPER- MATIC FLUID. . § 3, The spermatic fluid {sperma, semen), which is secreted in the testicles of all male animals capable of reproduction, is of thick consistency and a whitish colour. This fluid is obtained for analysis in greatest purity, and most completely formed, when a di'op of it is taken directly from the epididymis or vas deferens and transferred to the field of the microscope. Care must be taken to choose the ' The majority of the older works on generation have, at the present da}', merely an historical value. They mostly consist of pure speculations, without any foundation in fact or observation: these works will be referred to by-and- by in our History of Physiology, and also in the different sections of the present book. The most remarkable among the older works is, undoubtedly, that of Harvey, Exercitationes de Generatione AnimaHum, Lond. 165', in 4to. The writings of Regner de Graaf, entitled, De Virormn Organis generationi iiiservienti- bus, Lugd. Batav. 1668, in 8vo, and De' Mulierum Organis, &c. ib. 1672, are also of great importance. Copious summaries of all the observations of the older writers may be found in Haller's Elementa Pliysiologia, vol. vii. p. 410. 1/65. Among the writings of more recent date which treat of the subject of generation generally, we must particularly refer to that of Spallanzani, Experiences stir la Generation par Senebier, Geneve, 1783, translated into German, by Michaelis, Leipz. 1786; [and into the English, in Tracts on the Natural History of Animah and Vegetables, by Dalyell, Edin. 1803;] to that of Oken, die Zevgung, Bam- berg and Wurzburg, 1805; of Prevost and Dumas, Nouvelle TMoric de la Gene- ration, Annates des Sciences Nat. tom. i. ii. and vi.; of Burdach, Physiologie, B. i. (second edition,) 1835, which contains a very copious account, but is not complete as regards the numerous recent observations. The best and most comprehensive view of the' whole subject of generation, grounded on personal observation, which we possess, is that by Dr. Allen Thomson, in his article. Generation, in Todd's Cyclopmdia of Anatomy and Physiology, vol. ii. The writings of Wolfl, Blumenbach, and others will be j)articularly quoted by and hy.