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
XXXIV. The genital parts of a cow, which had been just killed, was
sent to me, covered over with hot cloths, and put into a basket with
a live rabbit, which likewise squatted on a cloth at the bottom, so
that I received them almost as warm as when taken out of the body. I
immediately inspected the testicles, and found them of the size of
a hen's, or, at least, a pigeon's egg. One of these testicles had a
glandular body, about the size of a pea, protuberating outwardly like a
small nipple, but it was not pierced, nor had any external orifice: it
was close and hard. I pressed it with my fingers, but no liquor issued
from it. I observed, before this testicle was dissected, there were
two other glandular substances at a distance from the other; but these
were just begun to grow; their colour was a whitish yellow, whereas
that which seemed to have pierced the membrane of the testicle was of
a rose colour. I opened this last, and examined it with the greatest
attention, but could not discover that it contained any liquor, I
therefore judged that it was far distant from its maturity.
XXXV. The other testicle had no glandular body which had pierced the
common membrane that covered the testicle, there were only two small
ones, which began to form a little protuberance below this membrane.
I opened both of them but no liquor issued therefrom: they were hard,
whitish, and with a little yellow tint; each of them had four or five
lymphatic vesicles, very easily distinguishable on their surface, and
appearing transparent. I judged they contained a quantity of liquor,
and having pierced them with a lancet, the liquor issued out to some
inches distance. I collected a sufficient quantity of this liquor to
observe it easily; I only saw some very minute immoveable globules; and
although I continued my examination for two days, I neither discovered
alteration, change, nor motion, therein.
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