c. Ends of the Ducts.
d, d. Cells of the Vesiculæ.
e. Left Vas Deferens, also cut open to show its connexion with the Vesiculæ.
f. Right Vas Deferens.
g, g. Openings of the Vas Deferens and Vesiculæ into the Urethra.
h. Bladder.
i. Ureter.
The Vesiculæ Seminales appear like two cellular bags. They have two coats, the one called nervous, and the inner the cellular, a membrane divided into folds or ridges. The use of the vesiculæ is supposed to be, to act as reservoirs for the semen; but there are different opinions upon the subject, some contending that they furnish a fluid, not spermatic, but merely as an addenda to the seminal secretion; whereas others, who have examined the vesiculæ of persons who have suddenly died, have discovered all the essential qualities of the male seed therein; and, in fact, physiologists, who direct researches in these matters, advise such examinations as the surest means of obtaining, in a state of purity, the seminal fluid.
The Male Semen is a fluid of a starch-ish consistency and of a whitish color. It has a peculiar odor, “like that of a bone while being filed—of a styptic and rather acrid taste,” (for physiologists use more senses than one in these researches), “and of greater specific gravity than any other fluid of the body.” Shortly after its escape, “it becomes liquid and translucent;” if suffered to evaporate, it dries into scurfy-looking substance. By being examined through a powerful microscope it is ascertained to be animated by an infinite number of animalcules; but they are only present in healthy semen, and consequently that fact is taken as a criterion of the virility of the secretion.
President Wagner thus describes the germe of future animal life: “The seminal granules are colorless bodies with dark outlines, round and somewhat flattened in shape, and measuring from 1-300 to 1-500th of a line in diameter.” “The animalcules exist in the semen of all animals capable of procreation. They are diversified in form in all animals according to their species, but in man they are extremely small, scarcely surpassing the 1-50th, or almost the 1-40th of a line in breadth. This transparent and flattened body seldom exceeds from the 1-6th to the 1-800th of a line in length.”