Buffon's Natural History, Volume 03 (of 10) / Containing a Theory of the Earth, a General History of Man, of the Brute Creation, and of Vegetables, Minerals, &c. &c.

by comte de Georges Louis Leclerc Buffon

XXII. I took three of these testicles, of three different rams, cut each of them into four parts, and put them into separate bottles, with as much water as was sufficient for them. Securing these bottles from the admission of air I suffered the infusion to remain for four days, after which I examined the liquor of each by the microscope, and found them all replete with an infinity of moving bodies, most part of which were oval, and the rest globular; they were pretty thick, and resembled those described in the [VIII]th experiment; their motion was neither brisk, uncertain, nor very rapid, but equal, uniform, and in all directions. These moving bodies were nearly of the same size in each liquor, but differed one bottle with the other. They had no tails, nor were there any filaments or threads in this liquor; during the fifteen or sixteen days they were retained, they often changed their form, and seemed successively to throw off their external coverings; they also became every day smaller, and on the sixteenth day, they were no longer perceptible.

XXIII. In the month of October I opened a ram, and found a great quantity of seminal liquor in the epididymis; having examined it with the microscope, I perceived an innumerable multitude of moving bodies, so numerous, that all the liquor seemed to be entirely composed of them; as it was too thick, I diluted it with water, but I was surprised to see the motion of these bodies suddenly stop, though I perceived them very distinctly; having many times repeated the same observation, I perceived that the water which diluted the seminal liquors of a man, a dog, &c. seemed to coagulate that of a ram.

XXIV. I then opened another ram, and in order to prevent the seminal liquor from coagulating, I permitted the parts of generation to remain in the body of the animal, and covered it over with warm clothes. By these precautions I observed the seminal liquor in its fluid state; it was replete with an infinity of oblong moving bodies, ([fig. 8.]) traversing in various directions; but as soon as the liquor grew cold, the motion of all these bodies immediately ceased. I diluted the liquor with warm water, when the motion of the small bodies remained for three or four minutes. The quantity of these moving bodies was so great in this liquor, that although diluted, they nearly touched each other. They were all of the same size and form, but none of them had tails. Their motion was not very quick, and when it stopped by the coagulation of the liquor, they did not change their form.

XXV. As I was persuaded, not only by my own theory, but also by the observations of all those who had made experiments before me, that the female, as well as the male, has a seminal and prolific liquor; and, as I had no doubt, but the reservoir of this liquor was the glandular body of the testicle, where prejudiced anatomists attempted to find the egg, I purchased several dogs and bitches, and some male and female rabbits, which I kept separate from each other; and in order to have a comparative object with the liquor of the female, I again observed the seminal liquor of a dog, and discovered there the same moving bodies as described in the [XI]th experiment.

XXVI. While I was thus occupied, a bitch was dissected which had been four or five days in heat, and had not received the dog. The testicles were readily found, and on one of them I discovered a red, glandular, prominent body, about the size of a pea, which perfectly resembled a little nipple; on the outside was a visible orifice formed by two lips; one of which jutted out more than the other. Having introduced a small instrument into this orifice, a liquor dropped from it, which we carefully caught to examine with the microscope. The surgeon replaced the testicles in the body of the animal, which was yet alive, in order to keep them warm. I then examined this liquor with a microscope, and, at the first glance, had the satisfaction to see moving bodies with tails, exactly like those I just before saw in the seminal liquor of the dog. ([fig. 9.]) Messrs. Needham and Daubenton, who observed them with me, were so surprized at this resemblance, that they could scarcely believe but that these spermatic animals were the same, and thought I had forgotten to change the table of the microscope, or that the instrument with which we had gathered the liquor of the female, might before have been used for the dog. Mr. Needham then took different instruments, and having obtained some fresh liquor, he examined it first, and saw there the same kind of animals, and was convinced, not only of the existence of spermatic animals in the seminal liquor of the female, but likewise of their resemblance to those of the semen of the male. We repeated it ten times at least, in different drops of the same liquor, without perceiving the smallest variation in the phenomena.

XXVII. Having afterwards examined the other testicle, I found a glandular body in its growing state; it had not any external orifice, was much smaller, and not so red as the first. Having opened it, I found no liquor; but only a small fold in the internal part, which I judged to be the origin of the cavity that was to contain the liquor. This second vesicle had some very small lymphatic vesicles externally. I pierced one of them with a lancet, and a clear and limpid liquor flowed out, which I examined with the microscope; it contained nothing similar to that of the glandular body; it was a clear matter, composed of small globules, which were motionless. Having often repeated this observation, I was assured, that this liquor in the vesicles was only a kind of lymph, which contains nothing animated, or similar to that seen in the female seed, which is formed and perfected in the glandular bodies.

XXVIII. Fifteen days after I opened another bitch that had been in heat seven or eight days, but had not received the dog. I found the testicles contiguous to the extremities of the horns of the matrix; these horns were very long, their external tunic surrounded the testicles, and they appeared covered with that membrane like a cowl. In each testicle I found a glandular body in its full maturity. The first was half open, and there was a passage which penetrated into the testicle, and which was replete with seminal liquor; the second was somewhat more large and prominent, and the orifice, or canal, which contained the liquor was below the nipple. I took these two liquors, and having compared them, found them perfectly alike. The seminal liquor of the female is at least as liquid as that of the male. Having afterwards examined the two liquors with the microscope, I perceived the like moving bodies, ([fig. 10.]) and the same phenomena, as in the seminal liquor of the other. I saw besides many globules which moved very briskly, and endeavoured to disengage themselves from the mucilage that surrounded them: there was a great quantity of them as in the seed of the female.

XXIX. From these glandular bodies I pressed out all the liquor, and having collected it, I found enough to last for four or five hours observations. I remarked that it deposited somewhat to the bottom, or at least began to thicken. I took one drop of this, which was thicker than the rest, and having put it on the microscope, perceived that the mucilaginous part of the seed was condensed, and formed a continued net-work. On the external border of this net-work, there was a torrent, or current, composed of globules, which moved with rapidity. These globules were lively, active, and appeared to be disengaged from their mucilaginous covering, and their tails. This stream perfectly resembled the course of the blood in small transparent veins; for they appeared not only to be animated by their own powers, but also to be impelled by a common force, and constrained to follow in a herd. From this experiment, and the [XI]th and [XII]th, I concluded, that when the fluid begins to coagulate and thicken, these active globules break and tear their mucilaginous coverings, and escape by that side where the liquor remains most fluid. These moving bodies had then neither threads nor tails; they were for the most part oval, and appeared to be flat at the bottom, for they had no rolling motion.