The mechanization of life: The sperm cell's journey from spiritual essence to cryogenic asset

“ It at first appears exceedingly wonderful that in the sexual propagation of man, and of all higher animals, the small egg, the minute cell, often invisible to the naked eye, is able to transfer to the produced organism all the qualities199 of the maternal organism, and, no less mysterious, that at the same time the essential qualities of the paternal organism are transferred to the offspring by means of the male sperm, which fructifies the egg-cell by means of a viscid substance in which minute thread-like cells or zoosperms move about. ”

“ It must not be forgotten when exploring these deep subjects that man is a spiritual being, clothed with a material body, that his spirit is his inmost, and that what proceeds from him in the generative act has life from his inmost; consequently the life-giving principle of his semen is from his inmost, which constitutes its life-giving power. This inmost from the male, the begetting power, is clothed by his seminal fluid for an All-wise purpose ”

“ One of the first considerations in freezing semen is that of deciding which semen samples are to be frozen. Since preservation of the semen—the maintenance of the potential motility and especially the fertility of the sperm—is the primary aim, some attention should be directed to the kind of semen sample that will withstand freezing. Do the initial characteristics of the sample indicate whether the sperm will withstand freezing? Does maturity of the sperm affect their freezability? ”

“ The nature of the organ-forming substances in the germ cells and their embryogenesis is being studied. Through physico-chemical methods the biocolloids have become better known and finally the great mystery, the synthesis of living matter itself, may be revealed. ”

“ The spermatozoön, the principle of life contributed by the male, is so small that it is not visible to the eye except by the aid of a microscope, and, when seen, somewhat resembles a pollywog. These minute centres of life are alive, and move in a fluid which is secreted by the male organs of reproduction, and which is generally called semen. Now, if we study the characteristics of the ovum and of the spermatozoön we may be surprised when we discover some of the same differences which characterize men and women from infancy to old age. ”

“ Looking at Plate 2, you will see the man's sex machinery. The testicles are to a man what the ovaries are to a woman. They are two sacs held in a bag of rather thin loose skin called the scrotum, and it is here that the sperm (spermatozoa) or germ of life grows. Just how no one really knows. The spermatozoa are very tiny and the testicles hold many thousands of them. Under the microscope they show a sort of head and tail like a pollywog. They are very much alive and move by a rapid wiggling of the tail part. ”

“ Yet we have done so much that we can confidently speak of heredity as a physiological function of the organism, which is directly connected with the faculty of generation; and we must reduce it, like all other vital phenomena, to exclusively physical and chemical processes, to the mechanics of the protoplasm. We now know accurately enough the process of impregnation itself; we know that in it the nucleus of the spermatozoon contributes the qualities of the male parent, and the nucleus of the ovum gives the qualities of the mother, to the newly born stem-cell. ”

“ We have already taken a step in that direction by establishing that the whole substance of the fertilized ovum does not take part in heredity in the same degree, but that only a small part, the chromatin of the nucleus, is to be looked upon as the bearer of the hereditary qualities, and by deducing, further, that this chromatin is made up of a varying number of small but still visible units, the ids, each of which virtually represents the whole organism, or, as I have already expressed it, each of which contains within itself, as primary constituents, all the parts of a perfect animal. ”

“ Thus there only remains the 'head' of the spermatozoon, which includes the nucleus, as the possible vehicle of the heritable substance. Therefore we are led to seek for the hereditary substance in the nucleus. But the hereditary substance cannot be a perishable substance which may at need be dissolved, in the literal sense of the word, and be formed anew; therefore we cannot look for it in the nuclear membrane, and just as little in the 'nuclear sap' which fills the meshes of the nuclear network, since the material on which heredity depends must necessarily be solid. ”

“ In routine artificial breeding, it is common to add extenders to semen so that one milliliter of diluted semen may contain only 10 million living sperm cells. (This number still insures optimal fertility.) Frequently the addition of 100 or more parts of the yolk extender to each part of the original semen sample is possible without reducing the sperm numbers below 10 million per milliliter. No one knew if this process of dilution would affect the resistance of bull sperm to freezing. The effect of various rates of dilution on the freezability of bull sperm was tested with 10 semen samples. ”

“ Allowing sperm to equilibrate with the glycerol. Allowing sperm to stand in the presence of glycerol is considered by some to be necessary in order that the glycerol penetrate the sperm heads before freezing. From the first successful attempts at freezing bull sperm came the practice of allowing 12 to 20 hours for this process of equilibration. A long equilibration time results in aging the sperm. Data from a number of sources indicate that a drop of approximately 5 percent in fertility in the field occurs with each 24 hours of aging in the test tube. ”

“ To the action of analyzing substances before the reassembling or rebuilding, besides washing and trituration, belongs also putrefaction or rotting. Without this no fruitful work is possible. I have previously mentioned that it was thought that semen must rot in order to impregnate. The seed grain is subject to putrefaction in the earth. But we must remember also the impregnating activity of manure if we wish to understand correctly and genetically the association rot—procreate. ”

“ The semen is the fruit of the male. The male is always pregnant, and that indeed by virtue of his own power. This power is deficient in the female, which does not possess the light in itself, but only the elemental bodies that are ready and susceptible of form.
1467. The anthers are the male organs, the pollen is the semen. The pistils are the female organs, the seed-granules are properly speaking, the germ.
1468. The pollen is a most highly differenced, electrical product; the seed-granule a wholly indifferent, and tranquil mucous mass. ”

“ Why the germ, which before impregnation undergoes a certain amount of development, ceases to progress and perishes, unless it be acted on by the male element; and why conversely the male element, which is enabled to keep alive for even four or five years within the spermatheca of a female insect, likewise perishes, unless it acts on or unites with the germ, are questions which cannot be answered with any certainty. ”

“ That of the male is called the spermatozoon (pronounced sper ́ma-to-zoön) . It is sometimes called spermatozoid; the plural is spermatozoa. It is exceedingly small, the smallest of any cell in the body, and has the power to move from place to place. These cells are produced in enormous numbers, and so far as they have been observed under the microscope they differ considerably in power of movement and in perfection of development. Considering their small size, they must make a [163] very long journey to find the ovum; and if they were only few in number, they would rarely succeed ”

“ The human spermatozoon measures about one six-hundredth of an inch in length. It is composed of protoplasm, the substance of which all living creatures are composed. The spermatozoa are believed to be developed from a parent sperm-cell, by the process of segmentation or subdivision, which process is common to all cell-life. The numerous spermatozoa dwell in a gelatinous substance, which, mingling with the other fluidic secretions of the glands of the male, constitutes the male seminal fluid, sperm, or semen, which is ejaculated by the male during the process of copulation. ”

“ No man in this country or Europe, was more competent to make the investigations that I desired. He found in making his dissections, a small globular sac, not larger than a grain of mustard seed, (about 1/33 of an inch in diameter,) communicating with the oviduct, and filled with a whitish fluid, which when examined under the microscope, was found to abound in spermatozoa, or the animalculæ, which are the unmistakable characteristics of the seminal fluid. Later in the season, the same substance was compared with some taken from the drones, and found to be exactly similar to it. ”

“ The entire mixture is then propelled, and ejaculation produced by strong muscular contractions of the entire urethra. As was stated before, the semen is the product of the testicles, the excretory ducts, and the accessory sexual glands. The testes furnish the essential germinal elements, the sperms, and some of the fluid content. Then is added the product of the epididymis, vas, and ampulla, which stimulates the spermatozoa to active motility, nourishes the organisms, and adds somewhat to the fluid bulk of the secretion. ”

“ To the secretion is then added the product of the vesicles, which contributes markedly to its fluid content, nourishes the sperms, and supplies the ferment which induces clotting of the semen when ejaculated. This is very important because the clot formed in the vagina protects the delicate spermatozoa from the hostile acid vaginal secretion. The prostate likewise adds bulk and nourishing substances, besides stimulating the spermatozoa to fuller and more lasting motility. ”

“ The central characteristic of the male, and the one that most clearly differentiates him from the female, is his aggressiveness.
In the sexual sphere this shows itself most clearly in the fact that the man takes, for the most part, the initiative in wooing. He it is who is the pursuer, the girl the pursued; he it is who proposes and he it is who initiates sex.
An analogy to this fundamentally aggressive activity of the male in relationship to the female is seen, in a primordial biological form, by the function of his sperm. ”

“ The greater activity of the sperm, the quickened pulse of the male child at birth, the more restless nature of the boy-baby, his running, climbing, active life throughout childhood and adolescence—these traits characterize not only his boyhood, his days of developing manhood, but his marital relations as well.
With rare exceptions, both of person and of instances, in married life all the sexual aggressiveness is with the male. Wives seldom seek the closer embraces of their husbands. They are generally indifferent ”

“ This greater activity of the sperm is seen also at the birth of the child; for physicians tell us that the pulse of a male child at birth beats two or three times a minute faster than that of a female child. The tissues of the male are also characterized by the same superior activity; and not only among men, but among all creatures. The tissues of the male have a greater tendency to change than those of the female. ”

“ Of the 24 chromosomes in each sperm or egg we are here concerned with only one, known as the sex chromosome because, in addition to transmitting other characteristics, it determines the sex of the new individual.
Neither the ovum nor the spermatozoon (the human race is referred to) is capable alone of developing into a new individual. They must join in the process known as fertilization. The sperm penetrates the egg (within the body of the female) and the 24 chromosomes from each source, male and female, are re-grouped in a new nucleus with 48 chromosomes—the full number. ”

“ It is only within a few years that closer study has shown that the whole process of fertilization is extremely simple, and entirely without special mystery. Essentially, it consists merely in the fact that the male sperm-cell coalesces with the female egg-cell. Owing to its sinuous movements, the very mobile sperm-cell finds its way to the female egg-cell, penetrates the membrane of the latter by a perforating motion, and coalesces with its cell material. ”

“ A new individual comes into existence at the moment of conception; yet it is not an independent entity, either in respect of its mental or its bodily features, but merely the product of the blending of the two parental factors, the maternal egg-cell and paternal sperm-cell. The cell-souls of these two sexual cells combine in the act of conception for the formation of a new cell-soul, just as truly as the two cell-nuclei, which are the material vehicles of this psychic potential energy, unite to form a new nucleus. ”

“ The strongest direct evidence seems to be that the nuclear substances are the only parts of the cells which are always equivalent in quantity, and that in the higher plants and animals the male organ or spermatozoid is composed almost entirely of the nucleus, and that the male nucleus is carried into the female cell without a particle of cytoplasm. ”

“ Just as the nucleus of the male sperm has within it all the contributions which the father of the child can give it, until after it is born, so does the mother give it its physical qualities right at the beginning.
Whatever is to be inherited from the father must be within the substance of the spermatozoon at the time the ovum is fertilized. He has no further pre-natal influence over it.
It is interesting to observe that the children of so-called great men are seldom above the average in intelligence, where, on the other hand, almost all men of great minds have had intelligent mothers. ”

“ Thus it comes about that the male or 'sperm-cells' of the lower plants, of the lower animals, and, again, of the highest animals are similar in structure. In all these organisms the male germ-cells exhibit the minuteness, the form, and the activity of the so-called 'zoosperms' or 'spermatozoa,' that is to say, they are thread-like, very minute corpuscles, which move rapidly forwards in water or other fluid with undulatory movements, and penetrate into the ovum with similar boring movements when they have been fortunate enough to reach their goal. ”

“ Spermatogenesis in man. There are 47 chromosomes (diploid) in the male. After reduction half of the sperm carry 24 chromosomes (one of which is X) and half carry 23 chromosomes (no X) . In man the sex formula appears to be XX for the female and XO for the male (fig. 60) , and since the relation is essentially the same as that in Drosophila the chromosome explanation is the same. According to von Winiwarter there are 48 chromosomes in the female and 47 in the male (fig. 61) . After the extrusion of the polar bodies there are 24 chromosomes in the egg. ”

“ What is sex? A sexual and mixed reproduction. Origin of sexual reproduction. Advantage of sex in chance of survival. Germ and body cells. Limitations of biology in social problems. Sex always present in higher animals. Sex in mammals—the problem in the human species. Application of the laboratory method.
II. SEX IN TERMS OF INTERNAL SECRETIONS
Continuity of germ plasm. The sex chromosome. The internal secretions and the sex complex. The male and the female type of body. How removal of sex glands affects body type. Sex determination. Share of the egg and sperm in inheritance. ”

“ In consequence there are two classes of sperms in man; female producing containing 24 chromosomes, and male producing containing 23 chromosomes. If the factor for color blindness is carried by the X chromosome its inheritance in man works out on the same chromosome scheme and in the same way as does white eye color (or any other sex linked character) in the fly, for the O sperm in man is equivalent to the Y sperm in the fly. ”

“ I. Each human individual, like every other higher animal, is a single simple cell at the commencement of his existence.
II. This “stem-cell” (cytula) is formed in the same manner in all cases—that is, by the blending or copulation of two separate cells of diverse origin, the female ovum and the male spermatozoon.
III. Each of these sexual cells has its own “cell-soul”—that is, each is distinguished by a peculiar form of sensation and movement.
IV. At the moment of conception or impregnation, not only the protoplasm and the nuclei of the two sexual cells coalesce, but also their “cell-souls” ”

“ Loeb has even gone so far as to consider that the process of fertilization is mainly ionic action; he denies that the nuclein of the male cell is essential, but asserts that all it does is to act as the stimulus in the due adjustment of the proportions of the surrounding ions, and supports this view by numerous experiments on ova in which without the presence of spermatozoa he has produced larvae by merely altering the saline constituents and so the osmotic pressure of the fluid that surrounds them. ”

“ The phenomenon of parthenogenesis and the recent work on artificial parthenogenesis in animal types show that the energy in the egg may be liberated and the wheels of development set in motion by the proper chemical and physical environment without the intervention of the sperm. ”

“ It will hardly be gainsaid that a knowledge of the proper conditions for changing forms, functions, habits and motives of living beings will be of priceless value to the race, and this work comes to the twentieth century.
Another piece of work, bringing great surprise among biologists as well as the rest of the thinking world, has been given to us within a year or two, namely, that unfertilized eggs have been made to develop in a normal way by subjecting them to certain inorganic chemical substances, such as magnesium chloride. ”

“ It is only within the present epoch, that physiology and chemistry have reached the point at which they could offer a scientific foundation to agriculture; and it is only within the present epoch, that zoology and physiology have yielded any very great aid to pathology and hygiene. But within that time, they have already rendered highly important services by the exploration of the phenomena of parasitism. ”

“ In a given mating, we must take into consideration such factors as impediments to coitus, as well as those numerous agencies in the female which may interfere with the union of sperm and ovum, or with the successful implantation of the fertilized egg in the uterus, and its growth and development there till normal parturition takes place. Successful reproduction depends upon the mating of sexually sound females to equally sound males. ”

“ Abnormalities in morphology may be classified into immature types, and deformities or imperfect development of the head and tail. Defective spermatogenesis occurs so frequently that it is not surprising to find spermatozoa in various stages of development cast into the excretory ducts. The various stages passed through in the development, from spermatogonia to adult sperm, are numerous, and it therefore is to be expected that we should see in abnormal semen many different immature forms. ”

“ Some of these intermediate types are large oval cells without distinct nuclei and as a rule with poorly developed tails. Cells with no tails or distinct nuclei, those with protoplasmic appendages to the head or tail, and various other types, are occasionally encountered. Most of these are motionless and incapable of producing impregnation. Others are active, but survive a comparatively short time. According to Cary, the production of the immature cells is an effort on the part of the testes to supply an abnormal demand, and their presence indicates that the fertility of the semen is impaired. ”

“ Hydrogen peroxide is known to be detrimental to sperm. The addition of glycerol to diluted semen first increased oxygen uptake and then reduced it. Since a reduction in sperm survival followed, some harmful action must have taken place with the addition of glycerol at 37° C. To test whether this action could be due to the release of hydrogen peroxide as occurs in certain bacteria, glycerol with catalase—the enzyme which breaks down hydrogen peroxide—was added to a portion of 8 diluted semen samples and the oxygen uptake was recorded. ”