Frontiers exist between the various fields of medicine, but modern research is gradually eliminating them by adapting the diagnostic tools of one specialty to investigate another. This report is an example of such an effort and is the application to psychiatric patients of techniques which were originally devised for determining male fertility.An unexpected opportunity arose to study semen quality in a group of schizophrenic patients. Observations were to be made on the chemistry and morphology of the ejaculatory secretion following ultraviolet irradiation of body surfaces. Patients in a mental institution were the subjects, and among those selected, seven men were found unsuited to the study. It became apparent from observations made on specimens obtained as controls prior to irradiation that their semen analyses differed from those of other psychiatric patients and from those of mentally normal men observed in an infertility clinic. Each member of the disqualified group had been diagnosed as schizophrenic by the hospital staff long before this investigation was undertaken, and had been under con¬ tinuous hospitalization for upwards of three years. There were no schizophrenics in the group whose control specimens were found to be acceptable for the study.It is generally recognized that a low fer¬ tility is common in schizophrenia, but a review of pertinent literature failed to reveal any significant study of the ejaculatory fluid. An important reason for this failure is the task of obtaining specimens. Blood, which is one of the most frequently examined body fluids, is easily obtained by venous puncture From the and can be frequently procured in compara¬ tively good quantities. Semen, on the other hand, is only obtained by coitus interruptus or by masturbation, is usually limited to 3 or 7 cc. per specimen, and cannot be too fre¬ quently obtained from the same patient with¬ out disturbing its morphology and biochem¬ istry. The procurement of semen also pre¬ sents emotional and religious problems.None of these difficulties is insurmountable.Workers in the field of sterility have reported semen studies on series of hundreds of cases.The important point in obtaining these speci¬ mens was the motive for the procedure. Cooperation was forthcoming when the physi¬ cian explained the potential value of semen studies in infertility. Patients are entitled to any examination which might help in the diagnosis of their difficulties. This is especially true in the mental pa¬ tient if the possible organic etiology of a psychiatric disease is to be studied. The semen is a sensitive indicator of disturbed body physiology and is as deserving of in¬ vestigation as any of the other body fluids. To limit the indication for semen analysis to the fertility phase would hinder scientific progress. Medicine would certainly have suffered seriously if we had examined blood only on the basis of its primary functions and had neglected the changes which diseased organs produced secondarily in cell mor¬ phology and biochemistry.The histology o...

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