[129] The composite character of the semen was recognized by various old authors, some of whom said, (e.g., Wharton) that it had three constituents, which they usually considered to be:  (1) The noblest and most essential part, from the testicles; (2) a watery element from the vesiculae; (3) an oily element from the prostate.  Schurig, Spermatologia, 1720, p. 17.

[130] See, e.g., C. Mansell Moulin, “A Contribution to the Morphology of the Prostate,” Journal of Anatomy and Physiology, January, 1895; G. Walker, “A Contribution to the Anatomy and Physiology of the Prostate Gland, and a Few Observations on Ejaculation,” Johns Hopkins Hospital Bulletin, October, 1900.

[131] For a study of the semen and its constituents, see Florence, “Du Sperme,” Archives d’Anthropologie Criminelle, 1895.

[132] J. Hunter, Essays and Observations, vol. i, p. 189.

[133] As regards one part of Australia, Walter Roth, Ethnological Studies Among the Queensland Aborigines, p. 174.

[134] Sir H.H.  Johnston, British Central Africa, p. 438.

[135] Cap.  VII, pp. 327-357, “De Spermaticis virilis usu Medico,”

[136] W.L.  Howard, “Sexual Perversion,” Alienist and Neurologist, January, 1896.

[137] Zentralblatt fuer Gynaekologie, 1894, No. 49.

[138] E. Toff, “Uber Impraegnierung,” Zentralblatt fuer Gynaekologie, April, 1903.  In a similar but somewhat more precise manner Dufougere has argued ("La Chlorose, ses rapports avec le marriage, son traitement par le liquide orchitique,” These de Bordeaux, 1902) that semen when absorbed by the vagina stimulates the secretion of the ovaries and thus exerts an influence over the blood in anaemia; in this way he seeks to explain why it is that coitus is the best treatment for chlorosis.

[139] In this connection I may refer to an interesting and suggestive paper by Harry Campbell on “The Craving for Stimulants” (Lancet, October 21, 1899).  No reference is made to coitus, but the author discusses stimulants as normal and beneficial products of the organism, and deals with the nature of the “physiological intoxication” they produce.

[140] Spermin was first discovered in the sperm by Schreiner in 1878; it has also been found in the thyroid, ovaries and various other glands.  “The spermin secreting and elaborating organs,” Howard Kelly remarks (British Medical Journal, January 29, 1898), “may be called the apothecaries’ of the body, secreting many important medicaments, much more active and more accurately representing its true wants than artificially administered drugs.”

[141] See, e.g., a summary of Buschan’s comprehensive discussion of the subject of organotherapy (Eulenburg’s Real-Encyclopaedie der Gesammten Heilkunde) in Journal of Mental Science, April, 1899, p. 355.

[142] “Observations Upon the Acquirement of Secondary Sexual Characters, Indicating the Formation of an Internal Secretion by the Testicles,” Proceedings Royal Society, vol. lxxiii, p. 49.