Practical remarks on the treatment of spermatorrhoea and some forms of impotence / by John L. Milton.

  • Milton, J. L. (John Laws), 1820-1898.
Date:
1854
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Practical remarks on the treatment of spermatorrhoea and some forms of impotence / by John L. Milton. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    Mr. Hunter,the Newton of medicine, whose true merits, to my thiuliing, even over- shadow those of the giant of the physical sciences, says :— Diseases of the vesiculac seminalcs aie very famiharly talked about, but I never saw one. In cases of very con- siderable induration of the prostate gland and bladder, where the surrounding parts have become very much affected, 1 have seen these bags also involved in the general disease, but I never saw a case where they appeared to he primarily attected. * So far as I can learn, all other trustworthy oliser- vations confirm this view. I have never heard nor seen a case in whidi disease of the seminal vesicles alone was detected ; in a few rare instances they become mechanically involved by ilie spread of the destructive action, but they generally remain free in the most extensive disease, either of the urinary or generative organs.f The principal argument made use of to prove that the seminal vesicles are the re- ceplicles of tlie semen is the presence of ipermatozoa or zoospcrnis in them. M. Lai lemand, on examining lliirty-tliree bodies, found spermatozoa in llie seminal vesicles of thirty of them ; bid only in the testicles of two, one of w hom had died from a fall, the other of gastro-cnteritis, which he thinks would go to show that these animalculic are formed in the testes, and tlien pass into the seminal vesicles. The next argument is, that small, brUliant, granular bodies are found in the urine of spermatorrluca patients; that they are met with in the masses of mucus squeezed out by these ])atients after going to stool ; and as they are found in the seminal vesicles of course tiiese are receptacles of semen. These are also met with at all times in the semen of healtliy men, and in great abundance in that of birds just before the testes become ripe.t The third is, that spermatozoa are wanting or few in the organs of castrated persons. Mr. Pritchard § says, The molecular motions of Dr. R. Brown—viz., those seen under a deep magnifier in a drop of water, in which finely divided gamboge or other • On tlio Venereal, p. 28.'1. + Mr. Itransby Cooiier snys, in the 43rd volume of tlio Jletliial Gazette:— Tlic vesicula; semi- nalcs are but rarely attacked by disease, but they liave been found after death tilled by scrofulous deposits of the cheesy matter so frei|uently met with in different parts of the body in strumous dia- thesis ; but where this condition exists, there are no sjimplums lievelopal dtirinp H/e Indicative of Oie change thai has nccurrcil. Tliis, liowevcr, probably arises from so little being known of the true func- tions of the orgait, t See a paper read by Mr. Gulliver at tlio Zoo- lOKical Society, July '20, IIM2. i A History of Infusorial Animalcules, I8.'i2. organic substances have been triturated; these motions have been compared with the spermatozoa of animals and i)Iants, which are now considered as physical motions only. Here, then, we have the alpha and omega of scepticism and credulity; the one elevating these little cells—for they are nothing more —into the essential part of the most im- portant of all secretions, the other viewing them as a mere appearance, produced, I presume, by causes acting from without. In cases where the generative power seem- ed quite lost, the testes having secreted no semen for a long time, 1 have found the vesicles containing their usual fluid. Among other observations, I may mention tliat last year I dissected with great care the genera- tive organs of a man who died in St. Luke's Workhottse at the age of eighty-five. The testicles had long performed no function at such an advanced age; they were very jialc and somewhat wasted ; the vas deferens was permeable, but very small, and its walls rigid; but I could observe no difFereiice in the appearance and contents of the seminal vesicles from what I had noticed in young people. It is asserted that the discharge which takes place in one form of gleet—viz., that of a thick mucus after going to stool or passing urine, is semen; that it comes in great part from the setninal vesicles; and that the disease is consequently a form of spermatorrhoea. Siieakiug of this view, Mr. Hunter says, First we may obsei-ve the discharge in question is not of the same colour with the semen, and is exactly of the colour of the mucus of the prostatic gland and of these bags (t)ie seminal vesicles). It is not of the same smell, and indeed.it has hardly any smell at all. The quantity eva- cuated at one time is often much more con- siderable than the evacuation of semen ever is, and it happens more frequently than it could ever do were the discharge semen. It is a disease which often attacks old men, where one could hardly suppose much semen to he secreted; and We find that those who are affected with this disease iirc no more deficient in the secretion and eva- cuation of the semen in the natural way tlian before they had the disease. If the mind be at ease, this will take place imme- diately after a discharge of semen, as well as before, which could not be the case were it semen. Further, if those that labour under this complaint are not connected with women, they are as subject to nocturnal discharges from imagination as persons who are pcr- fectlv sound. Tliis close and comprehensive reasomng shows the (leplli and grasp of Hunter's clear,