EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATIONS OF THE ROLE OF THE LEY DIG, SEMINIFEROUS AND SERTOLI CELLS AND EFFECTS OF TESTICTLAR TRANSPLANT AT I ON.*

Abstract

The question as to the exact role played in the organism by the secretions emanating from the testicular structures is one upon which even at the present day there is no complete agreement among physiologists. From the earliest times it has been believed that some direct, co-relationship existed between the testicular fluids and the nervous mechanism of the brain and cord. Although it is manifest that psychic and nervous factors are concerned; that disturbances in the cortical centers affect the testicular secretions; and that disturbances in these secretions affect the individual psyche and character; yet we are still very much in the dark in regard to the exact mechanism which regulates such phenomena. The earlier anatomists and physiologists understood that, apart from the generative function, the testicular secretions were concerned with the development and maintenance of masculinity in general; but it was not until toward the close of the XVrTII Century that the subject began to receive any scientific attention.