Essays in medical sociology, Volume 1 (of 2)

by Elizabeth Blackwell

Reproduction is accomplished in various ways in the widely differing ranks of living creatures. Man, owing to certain general resemblances of physical structure, belongs to the higher class of animals, the Mammalia. In this class the two factors necessary to reproduction, viz., ova and semen or sperm, exist in separate individuals. The ova or seed are formed in the ovaries, two small bodies placed within the pelvis of the female; whilst the sperm or vitalizing fluid is formed in the testes, two small bodies placed outside the pelvis of the male.

The organs or parts which produce the ova and semen are strictly analogous in the two sexes. Each part in the female corresponds to a similar part in the male; and at an early period of existence before birth it is impossible to determine whether the sex of the embryo is male or female.

Whilst the male and female organs concerned in the production of semen and of ova are parallel and in strict correspondence, there is one striking deficiency in the male structure. The organ essential to the development of the human being, the organ into which the fertilized ovum (or human seed) must be brought for growth, is wanting in the male structure. This deficiency or difference between the sexes produces important physiological results. The special part which the male has to perform physically in the all-important reproductive function of sex finishes with the act of sexual congress, but it continues in the female. If conception has taken place, the results of this act become increasingly important. The life of sex, or all that belongs to the life of the race, as distinguished from the existence of the individual, becomes continuously and for a long time inseparable from the woman’s personal existence. Thus, all the relations of sex form a more important part of the woman’s than of the man’s life. Another important fact in sexual construction must be noted—viz., the nervous connections of the sexual organs. All the parts concerned in reproduction are in close communication with the brain by means of the nervous system and that enlargement of the spinal cord at the base of the brain, the medulla oblongata. If the nervous connection between the generative organs and the brain be severed, no consciousness of those parts will remain. But whilst the natural nervous connection exists, the influence of the brain upon those organs is continually felt, and information as to their changes is sent to the brain. This nerve connection exists from birth, although the formation of ova and semen (on which the power of reproduction depends) does not take place until a later date. Keen nervous sensation may, therefore, be perceived at any time after birth, although offspring cannot be produced until the more or less perfect establishment of reproductive power at puberty.

It is of great importance to recognise this fact in the education of children.

The above general statements respecting the division and correspondence of the sexual organs in the male and female, and their connection with the brain through the nervous system, are true of all the Mammalia, where, as in man, the reproductive power exists in two separate individuals. When, however, we consider the way in which these functions act in the work of reproduction, an important difference is observed between their action in man and in the lower animals. This difference places man physically in a different and superior category from the brute creation.

The physiological arrangement of physical sex in man corresponds to the demands made by the increasing complexity of the sentiment of mental sex.

As already stated, the two essential features of physical sex are ovulation and sperm-formation. These two important factors in the joint work of reproduction are governed by a different rule in human and in brute life. In man they exist under the rule of continuity and of self-adjustment—i.e., these functions are always existent—but at the same time they adapt themselves to the higher needs of the individual. These two laws under which the functions exist—viz., 1st, continuity of action; 2nd, power of self-adjustment—are distinctive marks of superior human sexual function. Both are necessitated by the growth of reason—i.e., by a progressive civilization.

This will be understood clearly by dwelling more in detail on the way in which these two essential parts of reproduction—viz., sperm-formation and ovulation—are established in the human race. In reproduction, the ova which are constantly produced in the female require to be fertilized by contact with the semen, which is constantly produced by the male, before they can commence the remarkable series of changes and transformations which result in the formation of the embryo, the rudimentary human being.

Semen is a highly vitalized fluid, slowly but constantly secreted or formed by the male. As is the case with all organized living fluids, it is filled with rapidly-moving particles (spermatozoa), and its vitality appears to be in direct ratio to the quantity and activity of such movement. Motion seems to be inseparably connected with life, and is distinctive of any highly vitalized fluid. Thus, in the important and highly organized fluid, the blood, we observe constant motion and change in the active little bodies with which it is filled.

This quality of great and active vitality appears to be indispensable to the spermatozoon which in the work of procreation is obliged to traverse long and winding passages in order to come in contact with the ovum which is advancing to meet it. An intense energy in the special act of procreation is needed to overcome the difficulties which may prevent conception.