ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY.
Upon the composition of the semen in old men. By Dr. A. Duplay.
—Berard, Burdach, Muller, Longet, state, that spermatozoa are absent
in the seminal secretion of the aged; Wagner alone asserts, that, in
men of seventy to eighty years, these bodies are found in the vesi-
cul<c seminales, if not in the testicle. Facts tend to prove that the
fecundating power is retained up to the age of 100. The author
investigated the semen in fifty-one subjects, after death caused by various
diseases. In its physical properties the semen was sometimes of yellow
color, as in the adult; generally of a paler straw hue, or almost color-
less, milky or creamy. In twelve cases it was thick; but, in the greater
number, it was serous, though mixed with the usual mucous secretion
from the vesiculae seminales. In most cases the vesiculse seminales
were full of fluid; in one only were they atrophied. The semen in the
vasa deferentia was always darker-colored than that in the vesiculae.
In thirty-seven cases the author remarked the presence of sperma-
tozoa ; in fourteen he failed in detecting them. In twenty-seven cases
they were such as are usually seen in the healthy adult; in the rest the
tail was shorter, and the head sometimes separated. Once he saw a
number of crystals, whose nature he could not investigate. Consider-
able variety existed in their proportion.
In twenty-six cases, spermatozoa were found along the whole tract of
the spermatic passages; three times only in the vas deferens; once only
in the fluid of the vesiculae seminales; seven times in the vesicula
seminalis of the left side only. In the latter cases there existed mostly
degenerations of the testicle, or obliteration of some part of the seminal
duct. Secretion of semen continued, however, in cases where there was
considerable atrophy of the testicle; the highest weight of which was
11’98 grammes; the lowest 4-50 grammes. The tissue of the testicle
was always normal; the epididymis contained occasionally cysts. In
four cases there was hydrocele. In the fourteen cases where there were
no spermatozoa, the subjects had passed the age of seventy; but there
were no special changes discoverable in the glands. The secretion of
semen, concludes Dr. Duplay, continues in old men, but in a less
degree; their semen contains spermatozoa even when the person is
beyond the age for fecundation. The cause, therefore of want of power
to effect this end cannot be explained upon the idea of the deficiency
of spermatozoa.—Medical Times, from Arch. Gen. Dec. 1852.