THE EFFECT OF HYPERPYREXIA UPON SPERMATOZOA COUNTS IN MEN

IN A SERIES of papers published since 1922, Carl Moore and his coworkers (1, 2, 3, 4) have presented abundant evidence to show that exposure of the testes of the rat, guinea pig, and sheep to temperatures above that of the scrotum results in degeneration of the germinal epithelium and a consequent failure of spermatogenesis. This work was confirmed by Fukui (5) who exposed the scrota of rabbits to midsummer sunlight and found selective destruction of the germinal epithelium. He also applied continuous streams of hot water (44°–49°C.) to the scrota of dogs, cats, guinea pigs, rats and goats and found degenerative changes in the germinal epithelium i n every case. Young (4) studied the order of sperm cell degeneration in guinea pig testes after water heated to 46° or 47° C. had been run over the scrotum for 15 or for 30 minutes. He found that degeneration of the germinal epithelium begins immediately after treatment and continues until the end of ia days.