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But there is the curious fact that when the descent is not normal and complete, in what is called cryptorchidism, the organs are always sterile. The retention of the testes within the abdomen may be regarded as a case of arrested development, like many other abnormalities, but this does not explain why the retained testes should always be sterile, without spermatogenesis.
The facts concerning cryptorchidism, that is to say, failure of the descent of the testes in Mammals, seem to show that the hormone of the testis is not derived from semen or spermatogenesis, for in the testes which have remained in the abdomen there is no spermatogenesis, while the interstitial cells are present, and the animals in some cases exhibit normal or even excessive sexual instinct, and all the male characteristics are well marked.
It may be remarked, however, in criticism of this conclusion that the descent of the testes being itself a somatic sexual character of the male, its failure when the interstitial cells are normal and the spermatic cells defective, would rather tend to prove that the defect of the latter is itself the cause of cryptorchidism.
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