REPRODUCTION forms one of the three most general divisions of the functions of organic life, Nutrition on Innervation constituting the two others. It includes therefore the aggregate of the more particular function which occur, in organized beings, towards the reproduction of their kind. Generation, although by many authors employed as synonymous with reproduction, may be used in a more restricted sense and understand to mean the simple creation of germs. Copulation expresses the union of the sexual organs, by which the germs of the male are brought into contact with those of the female. Impregnation represents the application of the semen or germ of the male to the ovum or germ of the female. Fecundation expresses the union of the two germs, or rather the influence exerted by the former upon the latter. Conception expresses, in the first instance, the result of the reception of the semen of the male by the female ovum, the embryo or new creation, which arises from the influences of the semen upon ovum, or from the one with the other; and in the second instance it expresses the reception of this embryo into the womb. Gestation expresses the bearing or carrying of the embryo, both in the ovary and in the uterus, from the moment of its origin in conception its final expulsion in parturition. While Utero-Gestation properly covers that portion only of the period of gestation in which the embryo is borne within the uterus itself.
Provision in made in the constitution of the individuals of the human race, as in other orders of the animate and even of the inanimate creation, for the perpetuation of the species. This is effected by means of generation, which results from the union of the male and female cases. The act by which this union in effected is termed copulation. The two sexes are differently constituted in the various characteristics of their mental and moral being, and this difference of interior constitution becomes the foundation of corresponding differences in external form and in sexual organization.
To the pure all things are pure. For the benefit of the human race then these things may be explained. The respective mental and moral characteristics of the male and of the female are so constituted as to correspond to each other, so other from the conjunction of one man with one woman in the married state there results a perfect union, a complete man. Apart each represents but an incomplete entity; together, they form a complete whole. In like manner the different sexual organs of the male and female are mutually adapted to each other; through their conjunction the prior spiritual and affectional union of the one man with the one woman is ultimated, confirmed and consummated. And through this conjunction, in the holy state of matrimony, is accomplished the procreation of offspring, the perpetuation of the race, in which are at once secured the highest hope of the individual and the noblest aim of his being.
In their mutual adaptation to each other, in general and in particular, the male is formed for giving and the female for receiving. Thus the male and the female are seen to correspond, to be adapted and yet opposite to each other. During the act of copulation, the male secretes the semen in the testicles, and deposits it in the vagina of the female, whence the fecundating principle arises, and, entering certain ducts specially arranged for that purposes, passes up through the walls of the uterus, out through the ovarian ligament to the ovary. Here it enters and impregnates an ovule on that side. Each ovule, egg or Graafian vesicles terminates a distinct tubule or seminiferous duct, which is the extremity of the receptive organism of the female, and corresponds to the origin of the vasa differentia or emissary vessels of the donative organism of the male.
See the Plate opposite this page; the semen is represented as passing from the testicle, through the penis, which is introduced into the vagina, from thence its course may be traced upward through the uterine parietes and ovarian ligament to the ovary of either side.
The penis of the male and the vagina of the female are chiefly useful in producing the excitement, sexual organism, requisite for the secretion or flow of the semen of the male, and at the same time to open up and prepare the way for its ultimate reception by the female. For however ardent the emotions and however strong the affections on either side, the semen can neither be properly secreted and discharged, nor can it be suitably received, without such corresponding excitement in the sexual organs themselves as in provided for by the impulsive and repeated movement of the delicately sensitive glans penis along the course of the vagina, whose interior is diversified by equally sensitive rugae and rendered stimulating by the peculiar secretion from these numerous surfaces.
By such conjunction of the sexes, in which, in its most perfect fulfilment, all the highest emotions of the human soul and all the energies of the spirit are excited, developed and ultimated in a corresponding intense orgasm and copulation of the sexual apparatus, is accompanied the first step in the reproduction of the species. And there results what is termed fecundation, or that inspiration of the ovum of the female by the vivifying influence of the semen of the male, in which is laid the physical foundation of a new creation, and in which are at the same time inspired also the germinal principles of the human soul. And according to the perfect, united and harmonious co-operations, alike on the part of the male and of the female, of all the powers of body, mind and spirit, will this rudimentary germ of a new creature be capable of eventual development into a perfect individual representative of the human race.
The ovum thus impregnated and constituting a new creation, presently escapes from the ovary, descends through the Fallopian tube into the uterus, where it remains for further development, and is nourished and protected during the nine months of gestation. This period being completed, it is finally expelled from the uterus, by the process to which are applied the terms labor and parturition.
The semen of the male is principally and in the first instance secreted by the testes themselves; in its passage it is commingled with the more delicate secretion of the corpus Highmorianum, the epididymis and vasa deferentia. To this are superadded the secretions of the prostate, of Cowper’s glands and of the vesiculae seminales. These latter appear to protect and perhaps otherwise modify the original product of the testes and render it more capable of fecundating the female ova.
In the nature condition, then semen principally consists of an extremely small quantity of a viscid, fluid, and of innumerable, minute linear corpuscles, having a peculiar movement, which are termed by Kolliker, the spermatic filaments or animalcules, spermatozoa. The semen, regarded as a whole, and as it is found in the above-mentioned glands and mucous follicles which give it its peculiar odor, is whitish, viscid, and inodorous, consisting almost entirely of spermatic filaments or spermatozoa, and containing between these bodies an extremely minute quantity of connective fluid. In the pure semen these filaments exhibit no movements, or scarcely any when it is too much concentrated. The movements of the spermatozoa are first visible after the semen has entered the vesicular seminales. Kollicker.
The spermatozoa constitute the essential peculiarity as well as the larger portion of the immediate secretion of the testes. These bodies, deemed essential to the procreative function of semen, are now believed to be the products of the formative action of the organs in which they are found; and cannot therefore be ranked in the same category with animalcules. Carpenter.
The semen, as finally imparted to the female in copulation, consists then of three distinct portions; first, the original vital secretion of the superior portion of the tastes; secondly, of the delicate fluids which are associated with this secretion as it passes through the secondary structures of the epididymis and vasa deferentia, which stimulate its filaments to active movements; and, thirdly, of the more voluminous secretions of the subsequent glands and follicles, which envelope the whole as with a natural body. These three diverse and yet harmonizing elements are essential to the prolific and fecundating action of the semen. For neither the spermatozoa, nor the delicate secretions of the vas deferens, nor yet the grosser products of the various glands, can accomplish this great end separately.
These three constituent elements of the semen correspond to the body, soul and spirit, and the semen is thus seen to be in each perfect globule a miniature man Since within the inmost substance of each seminal nucleus is contained the very highest soul and life of the parent; the delicate fluids which immediately surround the minute globule are inspired by the animal spirits, which serve to stimulate land awaken the spermatozoa to action; while the more grass and exterior mucous envelopments correspond to the animal body. Or the three different parts of which the semen is originally composed may be considered to be the spermatozoa, the granules and the connective fluid of the testes, the whole enveloped by the mucous secretions from the inferior glands and follicles. It is found that the minutest appreciable particle of the semen is capable of effecting fecundation; each minutest particle is therefore a perfect and complete semen or seed of itself. Thus while no one of the several components of the seed globule is of itself capable of fecundating; each, in combination, is essential to the accomplishment of this object. Each minutest globule of semen, being perfect and complete, is composed therefore of the same several and indispensable ingredients: and must consist of a single spermatozoa; of a seminal granule; and of an enclosing tissue of connective fluid in which the spermatozoa disports itself, the whole covered and enveloped by the mucous secretion. Each particle of semen is therefore of itself a complete, organized, living body; a form representative of all the mental, moral and physical faculties, attributes and qualities, whether orderly or disorderly, of the parent from which it comes; and capable also of impressing its own type, in all these respects, upon the new creation which from its union with the female ovum.
