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SEMEN. SPERMINE. 021
has found a protamine in human semen which yielded arginine and
perhaps also lysine on cleavage. The mineral bodies consist mainly of cal-
cium phosphate and considerable NaCl. Potassium occurs only in
smaller amounts.
The semen in the vas deferens differs chiefly from the ejected semen
in that it is without the peculiar odor. This last depends on the admixture
with the secretion of the prostate. This secretion, according to Iversen,
has a milky appearance and ordinarily an alkaline reaction, very rarely
a neutral one, and contains small amounts of proteins, especially nucleo-
proteins, besides a substance similar to fibrinogen and to mucin (Stern ’),
and mineral bodies, especially NaCl. Besides this it contains an enzyme
vesicidase (see below), lecithin, choline (Stern), and a crystalline com-
bination of phosphoric acid with a base, C2H5N. This combination has
been called Bottcher’s spermine crystals, and it is claimed that the
specific odor of the semen is due to a partial decomposition of these
crystals.
The crystals which appear on slowly evaporating the semen, and
which are also observed in anatomical preparations kept in alcohol, are
not identical with the Charcot-Leyden crystals found in the blood and
in the lymphatic glands in leucaemia (Th. Cohn, B. Lewy 2
). They are,
according to Schreiner,3
as above stated, a combination of phosphoric
acid with a I ase, spermine, C2H5N, which he discovered.
Spermine. Opinions in regard to the nature of this base are not unanimous
According to the investigations of Ladenburg and Abel, it is not improbable
that spermine is identical with ethylenimine; but this identity is disputed by
Majert and A. Schmidt, and also by Poehl. The compound of spermine with
phosphoric acid
—
Bottcher’s spermine crystals—is insoluble in alcohol, ether,
and chloroform, soluble with difficulty in cold water, but more readily in hot
wqter, and easily soluble in dilute acids or alkalies, also alkali carbonates and
ammonia. The base is precipitated by tannic acid, mercuric chloride, gold
chloride, platinic chloride, potassium-bismuth iodide, and phosphotungstic acid.
Spermine has a tonic action, and, according to Poehl, 4
it has a marked action on
the oxidation processes of the animal body.
On the addition of a solution of potassium iodide and iodine to spermatozoa,
characteristic dark-brown or bluish-black crystals are obtained
—
Florence’s
sperm reaction, which is considered by many as a reaction for spermine. Accord-
ing to Bocarius, 5
this reaction is due to choline.
1
Iversen, Xord. med. Ark., 6; also Maly’s Jahresber., 4, 358; Stern, Biochem.
Centralbl., 1, 74S.
J
Th. Cohn, Centralbl. f. allg^Path. u. path. Anat., 10 (1899), and Zeitschr.f.Urolog.,
1908; B. Lewy, Centralbl f. d. med. Wissensch., 1899, 479.
8
Annal. d. Chem. u. Pharni., 194.
4
Ladenburg and Abel, Ber. d. deutsch. chem. Gesellsch., 21; Majert and A.
Schmidt, ibid., 24; Poehl, Compt. Rend., 115, Berlin, klin. Wochenschr., 1891 and
1893, Deutsch. med. Wochenschr., 1892 and 1895, and Zeitschr. f. klin. Med., 1894.
6
In regard to Florence’s sperm reaction, see Posner, Berl. klin. Wochenschr.,
1897, and Richter, Wien. klin. Wochenschr., 1897; Bocarius, Zeitschr. f. physioL
Chem., 34.
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