On the morphology of live spermatozoa of human semen

Live and dead spermatozoa of human semen were distinguished and evaluated separately with respect to their morphology after supravital staining with buffered eosin. This evaluation was shown to be almost as reliable as that of the commonly stained smear. Different samples from the same individual were found to be similar with respect to both the total population and the live population. Different types of abnormalities were not equally common in the live and dead populations. Tapered heads were more common in the live population and abnormal midpieces more common in the dead, whereas abnormal tails and cytoplasmic droplets occurred with the same frequency in both populations. However, neither the frequency of all spermatozoal abnormalities nor that of abnormal heads or midpieces studied separately showed strong correlations in the two populations, in contrast to the frequencies of tapered heads, cytoplasmic droplets, and abnormal tails. No constant relationship was found between the live population and the entire sperm population with respect to numerical differences or quotients between the figures for abnormal cell frequency.Therefore, study of the morphology of the live sperm population gives supplementary information about the qualities of semen not attained by previous methods of study.