The male generative organs in health and disease, from infancy to old age : being a complete practical treatise on the anatomy and physiology of the male system ... / by Frederick Hollick.

  • Hollick, Frederick, 1818-1900.
Date:
1850
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The male generative organs in health and disease, from infancy to old age : being a complete practical treatise on the anatomy and physiology of the male system ... / by Frederick Hollick. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the University of Massachusetts Medical School, Lamar Soutter Library, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Lamar Soutter Library at the University of Massachusetts Medical School.

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    It is of course only at that period when the eggs are ripened that impregnation can he effected, as is well known with domestic animals, who conceive only in the season of rut, or heat, which usually occurs in the spring. They will not admit the male at any other time, because there is not the requisite excitement to create the desire to do so ; but even if they were there could be no conception, simply because there is no egg to be impregnated. In the the human being the ovarian development is monthly, and therefore conception can occur at almost any period of the year, though only at a particular part of each month. In some domestic animals, as Fowls and Rabbits for instance, the ovarian development is almost incessant, so that they produce eggs, or conceive almost without intermission. On dissecting the ovaries of any animal at the proper period, all the appearances can be noted that we have described in the human being. The vesicles may be seen at various stages of develop- ment, the Corpora Lutea may be detected where ova have formerly been expelled, and, in birds, the eggs themselves may be seen, some merely rudi- mentary, others larger, and some nearly ready to ■be expelled. In the human being there is usually but one vesicle, and its egg, ripened at each period, but occasionally there are two or more, when we may have twins, and so forth. So that in those animals who have always several young at a birth, there are, of course, always as many vesicles ripened, and a Corpus Luteum is formed for each. The structure of the egg is the same in all animals, being precisely like that of the bird. The main part is a mass of yellow granules, called