Buffon's Natural History, Volume 03 (of 10): Containing a Theory of the Earth, a General History of Man, of the Brute Creation, and of Vegetables, Minerals, &c. &c.Buffon, Georges Louis Leclerc, comte de
History
Buffon's Natural History, Volume 03 (of 10): Containing a Theory of the Earth, a General History of Man, of the Brute Creation, and of Vegetables, Minerals, &c. &c.
Buffon, Georges Louis Leclerc, comte de
Natural history
XXVI. While I was thus occupied, a bitch was dissected which had been
four or five days in heat, and had not received the dog. The testicles
were readily found, and on one of them I discovered a red, glandular,
prominent body, about the size of a pea, which perfectly resembled
a little nipple; on the outside was a visible orifice formed by two
lips; one of which jutted out more than the other. Having introduced a
small instrument into this orifice, a liquor dropped from it, which we
carefully caught to examine with the microscope. The surgeon replaced
the testicles in the body of the animal, which was yet alive, in order
to keep them warm. I then examined this liquor with a microscope, and,
at the first glance, had the satisfaction to see moving bodies with
tails, exactly like those I just before saw in the seminal liquor
of the dog. (_fig. 9._) Messrs. Needham and Daubenton, who observed
them with me, were so surprized at this resemblance, that they could
scarcely believe but that these spermatic animals were the same,
and thought I had forgotten to change the table of the microscope,
or that the instrument with which we had gathered the liquor of the
female, might before have been used for the dog. Mr. Needham then
took different instruments, and having obtained some fresh liquor,
he examined it first, and saw there the same kind of animals, and
was convinced, not only of the existence of spermatic animals in the
seminal liquor of the female, but likewise of their resemblance to
those of the semen of the male. We repeated it ten times at least, in
different drops of the same liquor, without perceiving the smallest
variation in the phenomena.
XXVII. Having afterwards examined the other testicle, I found a
glandular body in its growing state; it had not any external orifice,
was much smaller, and not so red as the first. Having opened it, I
found no liquor; but only a small fold in the internal part, which I
judged to be the origin of the cavity that was to contain the liquor.
This second vesicle had some very small lymphatic vesicles externally.
I pierced one of them with a lancet, and a clear and limpid liquor
flowed out, which I examined with the microscope; it contained nothing
similar to that of the glandular body; it was a clear matter, composed
of small globules, which were motionless. Having often repeated this
observation, I was assured, that this liquor in the vesicles was only
a kind of lymph, which contains nothing animated, or similar to that
seen in the female seed, which is formed and perfected in the glandular
bodies.
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