Collection, Examination, Quality Rating and Storage of Ejaculated Semen

Abstract

Semen collection is something between a craft and an art, more or less difficult depending upon the animal species that one is working with. Individual experimenters differ greatly in the degree of mastery of techniques that have been elaborated for this purpose over the years; some are demonstrably better at it than others.

“The semen which constitutes the first part of the emission is evidently different from the last. That first discharged from the living body is of bluish white colour, in consistence like cream, and similar to what is found in the vasa deferentia after death; while that which follows is somewhat like the common mucus of the nose, but less viscid. The smell of semen is mawkish and unpleasant, exactly resembling that of the Spanish chestnut; and to the taste, though at first insipid, it has so much pungency as after some little time to stimulate and excite a degree of heat in the mouth.” John Hunter 1786