ANATOMY, COMPARATIVE ANATOMY, and FfETUS.
The bodies of the male and female pre sent very obvious differences in appear ance and character, which have been ascribed to the influence of the genera tive organs upon the constitution. The removal of the testes in the male, pre vents those changes in the beard and voice, at the time of puberty, which would otherwise occur : and eunuchs even approach in other respects to the female character, as in the breadth and projection of the hips. Again, in some remarkable cases, where the organs of the female have been wanting, or mal formed, similar effects have taken place in the constitution ; so that there is some reason for saying with Van Helmont, proper soluni titer= miler est, id pod eat.
Herinaphro&sm, or the union of both sexes in the same individual, is impossi ble in man and the warm-blooded ani mals. All the supposed hermaphrodites hitherto examined were mal-formed be ings, whose male organs were imperfect, or the female apparatus too prominent, so as to render the sex doubtful. No one has shown himself capable of impregnat ing his own person, so as to produce a being like himself; indeed, in most in stances they were incapable of assisting in reproduction, as an imperfection of the organs employed for that purpose con demned them to sterility.
Man presents a peculiarity, in not be ing subject to the influence of the sea sons in the exercise of his generative functions ; while other animals cohabit at fixed periods and certain times of the year, and afterwards seem to forget the pleasures of love to satisfy other wants.
Conception. Physiologists have not hi therto succeeded in explaining the me chanism of that .elongated and distended state of the penis, occurring under the irritation of the sexual passion, which adapts the organ to the performance of its natural functions. The obvious cir cumstances are, that the cells of the cor pus spongiosum ureth•x, and corpora cavernosa penis, are distended to the ut most with blood, poured into them from the arteries much faster than it can be, or at least is returned by the veins. The
irritation, which affects the penis, ex tends to the internal parts. The secre tion of' the testes becomes more active, and these bodies are drawn up towards the abdomen ; the vesicular seminales, and the ducts of the prOstate, also. pour out their contents into the urethra. The semen is a mixed fluid, derived from the three sources just mentioned ; but the smallest part probably comes from the testes. The most remarkable circum stance in this fluid is, that it contains numerous microscopic animalcula, with a round head and slender tail, moving about with rapidity.
This prolific liquor is expelled from the penis by a spasmodic action of the accelerator mime muscle : the whole body seems to participate in the same convulsive state, and the instant of ejacu lation is marked by an orgasm through every part. It seems that nature has for gotten, for the' moment, every other function, and is totally occupied in col lecting her powers, and directing them towards the same point. Hence an uni versal languor follows this general con vulsion, and hence the old observation, °nine animal.post coition triste.
The seminal liquor, thus propelled into the generative organs of the female, is supposed to pass through the uterus and fallopian tubes, and to come into ac tual contact with the ovaria. The close ness of the mouth, and indeed of the whole cavity of the uterus, together with the very small calibre of the fallopian tube, especially at its origin in the uterus, (where it will only admit a bristle) are difficulties in the way of this explanation, which have led to the opinion, that the semen itself does not penetrate into the uterus, but that an exhalation, or aura ominous, comes into contact with the germs, and is sufficient for their fecunda tion. This is opposed by the experi ments of Spallanzaui and others, in which the ova of frogs were readily impregnat ed by contact of the seminal fluid, but were not at all affected by the vapour or aura.