METHODS IN SPERM ANALYSES AND EVALUATION OF THERAPEUTIC PROCEDURES

The problem of human infertility has opened a new realm for thought and ingenuity, for it entails the unique implication of a pure creative endeavor within the practice of medicine. The proverbial mission of the physician has long been that of alleviating pain, combating and controlling disease and observing and assisting the physiologic processes of the body in health and in illness. The ultimate objective of the correction of disturbed fertility is the production of a new individual from a source that has hitherto been barren. Such a commendable motive deserves from the profession the serious deliberation it requires.

From Biblical times until the present century the wife has borne the burden of blame for failure to produce offspring, for until twenty years ago no serious studies of male fertility had been undertaken. It is now generally agreed that the husband bears the chief or partial responsibility in approximately one