CLASS V. I. Machinery of tion that differ so much in their form and comparative size in different animals as these vesicular bags: in the hedge the genera hog they are twice as large as in animals they are utterly wanting. tive func tion. Vesiculæ seminales differ widely man, and in many They are so in the dog, which continues for a very long time in a state of copulation, and in birds, whose copulation is momentary. in form and They are, moreover, wanting in most animals whose food size in differ- is chiefly derived from an animal source, though not in all, Hedge-hog. as the hedge-hog, to which I have just referred, is an example of the contrary. ent animals. Domestic dog. Birds. Hence supposed by J. Hunter to creting a Mr. Hunter hence concludes that the vesiculæ seminales are not seminal reservoirs but glands secreting a peculiar mucus, and that the bulb of the urethra is, properly speakbe glands se- ing, the receptacle in which the semen is accumulated prefluid distinct vious to ejection. Of the actual use of these vesicular from semen. bags, he confesses himself to be ignorant, yet imagines that in some way or other they are subservient to the purposes of generation, though not according to the common conjecture. Uterus and vagina sometimes double. Ovaria: formerly called female Fallopian tube. In a few rare instances the uterus and vagina are said to been found double. Dr. Tiedemann informs us that he has met with two instances of this monstrosity. The organs constituting one of the cases are preserved to this day in the Heidelberg Museum. The individual had been pregnant in one of the sets, and the uterus is here larger than on the opposite side which is of the ordinary size. The woman reached her full time, but died nineteen days after delivery. The ovaria are to the female what the testes are to the male. They were formerly, indeed, called female testes, and furnish, on the part of the female, what is necessary towards the production of a progeny. They are, in fact, two spheroidal flattened bodies, inclosed between the folds of the broad ligaments by which the uterus is suspended. They have no immediate connexion with the uterus; but near them the extremity of a tube, which opens on either side into that organ, hangs with loose fimbria in the cavity of the abdomen, into which it communicataes the fimbrial end. This tube is called the Fallopian from the name of its I. Ma the generative fune Corpora The secrelutea, what. tion of these organs, of what nature. discoverer. At the age of puberty, the ovaria acquire CLASS V. their full growth, and continue to weigh about a drachm chinery of and a half each till menstruation ceases. They contain a peculiar fluid resembling the white of eggs, once supposed tion. to be secreted by the glandular structure of various small bodies imbedded in them, which have been denominated corpora lutea. By some early writers this fluid was contemplated as a female semen, forming a counterpart to the semen of males; but it has since been held, and the tenet is well supported by anatomical facts, to be a secretion of a different kind, thrown forth in consequence of the excitement sustained by the separation of one or more of the minute vesicles, which seem to issue from Vesicles them as their nucleus or matrix, and which are themselves regarded by the same school as the real ovula of subsequent fetuses: to which subject, however, we shall advert presently. ovula of the ovaries. Powerful inthe seminal fluid on the fluence of animal economy. It is singular to contemplate the very powerful influence which the secretion, or even the preparation for secreting the seminal fluid, but still more its ejection, produces over the entire system. On the perfection, and a certain and entonous degree Illustrated. of distention, of the natural vessels, apparently producing an absorption of the fluid when at rest, the spirits, the vigour, and the general health of man depend. Hence, antecedently to the full elaboration of the sexual system, and the secretion of this fluid, the male has scarcely any distinctive character from the female: the face is fair and beardless, the voice shrill, and the courage doubtful. And whenever in subsequent life, we find this entonous distention relaxed, we find at the same time languor, debility, and a want of energy both in the corporeal and mental functions, And where the supply is entirely suppressed or cut off by accident, disease, or unnatural mutilation, the whole system is changed, the voice weakened, the beard checked in its growth, and the sternum expanded : so that the male again sinks down into the female cha Fallop. Observ. Anat. 197. CLASS V. racter. I. Machinery of the genera tive func tion. Effects from its discharge: in the stout est animals: in the feeblest : est plants: in feebler These changes occur chiefly where the testicles are extirpated before manhood; but they take place also, though in a less degree, afterwards. In like manner, during the discharge of the seminal fluid in sexual commerce, the most vigorous frames of the stoutest animals become exhausted by the pleasurable shock: and the feeble frames of many of the insect tribes are incapable of recovering from the exhaustion, and perish immediately afterwards; the female alone surviving in the stout to give maturity to the eggs hereby fecundated. The same effect occurs after the same consummation in plants. The stoutest tree, if superfructified, is impaired for bearing fruit the next year; while the plants of the feeblest structure die as soon as fructification has taken place. Hence, by preventing fructification, we are enabled to prolong their duration; for by taking away the styles and stigmas, the filaments and anthers, and especially by plucking off the entire corols of our garden-flowers, we are able of annuals to make biennials, and of biennials triennials. plants. Aroma in In many animals during the season of their amours, some anithe aroma of the seminal fluid is so strong, and at the mals peculiarly strong same time so extensive in its influence as to taint the flesh; in the breed- and hence the flesh of goats at this period is not eatable. ing season, eatable. A like effect in fishes. haustion in stags. and flesh not Most fishes are extremely emaciated in both sexes at the same time, and from the same cause, and are equally unfit for the table. Stags, in the rutting season, are so exSingular exhausted as to be quite lean and feeble, and to retire into the recesses of the forest in quest of repose and quiet. They are well known to be totally inadequate to the chace; and hence, for the purpose of maintaining a succession of sporting, they are sometimes castrated, in which state they are called heaviers. If the castration be performed while the horns are shed, these never grow again; and, if while the horns are in perfection, they are never shed. Horns never grow again if castration be perform ed while they are shed. Peculiar economy in the reindeer. The male and female rein-deer (cervus Tarandus) ordinarily cast their horns every year in November. If the male be castrated, the horns will not grow after he is nine years old; and the female, instead of dropping her CLASS V. I Ma chinery of the generative func tion. horns as usual in November, retains them, if gravid, till she fawns, which is about the middle of May. In this case the usual stimulus necessary for the operation of exfoliation is transferred to another part of the system. And for the same reason we often find that a broken bone in a pregnant woman will secrete no callus, and consequently Explained not unite, till after child-birth. In the former case the by analogy. roots of the horns are affected by sympathy with the general sexual system, of which, indeed, they may be said to form a part, and by their superior size are discriminative of the male sex. In the human race, the strong deep voice, characteristic of manhood, is rarely acquired, if castration be performed in infancy. Association of the general system with the sexual when There is no animal, perhaps, but shows some sympathetic action of the system at large, or some remote part of it, with the genital organs, when they are in a state of peculiar excitement. The tree-frog (rana arborea) has, in the breeding season, a peculiar-orbicular pouch attached to its throat; the fore-thumb of the common male toad is at the same season affected with warts: and the females frog: of some of the monkey tribes evince a regular menstrua- male-toad: tion. in a state of excitement. in the tree Illustrated common monkey tribes. Involved in mystery: II. The process by which the generative power is able II. Generato accomplish its ultimate end, is to the present hour in- tive process. volved in no small degree of mystery; and has given rise to three distinct and highly ingenious hypotheses that have a strong claim upon our attention, and which we shall proceed to notice in the order in which they have appeared. but has given rise to three popu re lar hypothe ses as follow: Fetus pro intermixture of a male and female seminal fluid: The first and most ancient of these consists in regarding the fetus in the womb as the joint production of matter afforded in coition by both sexes, that of the male being secreted by the testes, and that of the female by the uterus itself, or some collateral organ, as the ovaria, which last, however, is a name of comparatively modern origin, forming the and derived from a supposed office which was not contemplated among the ancients. To this hypothesis has been given the name of EPIGENESIS. theory of epigenesis: The seed or matter afforded by the female was regarded Female ge nerative CLASS V. II. Genera tive process. matter how explained by Hippocrates and Aristo tle, as distinct from by Hippocrates, Aristotle, and Galen, as the menstrual blood or secretion, which they supposed furnished the substance and increment of the fetus, while the male semen furnished the living principle: Empedocles, Epicurus, and various other physiologists contending, on the contrary, that the father and mother respectively contributed male semen. a seminal fluid that equally co-operated in the generation and growth of the fetus, and stamped it a male or a female, Empedocles and with features more closely resembling the one or the and Epicu- other according as the orgasm of either was predominant at the time, or accompanied with a more copious discharge. In the words of Lucretius who has elegantly compressed the Epicurean doctrine : How ex plained by rus. Sex and features how accounted for. Sex and accounted Et muliebre oritur patrio de semine seclum ; Sive virûm suboles, sive est muliebris origo*. The distinction of sex, however, was accounted for in a features how different manner by Hippocrates, who supposed that each for by Hip- of the sexes possesses a strong and a weak seminal fluid; pocrates and and very ungallantly asserted that the male fetus was Aristotle. Commentary of upon Aristotle's opinion. formed by an intermixture of the robuster fluids of the two sexes, and the female by that of the more imbecile. Lactantius, in quoting the opinion of Aristotle upon this Lactantius subject, adds, fancifully enough, that the right side of the uterus is the proper chamber of the male fetus, and the left of the female: a belief which is still prevalent among the vulgar in many parts of Great Britain. But he adds that if the male, or stronger, semen should by mistake enter the left side of the uterus, a male child may still be conceived; yet, inasmuch as it occupies the female department, its voice, its face, and its general complexion will be effeminate. And, on the contrary, if the weaker, or female, seed should flow into the right side of the uterus and a female fetus be begotten, the female will exhibit * De Rer. Nat. Lib. iv. 1220. |