1779 Insemination was introduced

After the use of Chinese herbs and herb mixtures to help increase infertility, the next successful practice in the infertility would was artificial insemination. Insemination is when the sperm is injected into the woman without intercourse.

I found an interesting website that I would like to share a bit from. It talks about the history of insemination:

• 1) Although it is often thought that artificial insemination is part of modern technology, it was first experimented in 1779 by an Italian priest and physiology named Lazaro Spallanzani. Before that time, it was thought that the embryo was “the product of male seed, nurtured in the soil of the female,” but Spallanzani established for the first time that for an embryo to develop there must be actual contact between the egg and sperm. From here, Spallanzani inseminated frogs, fish, and dogs. (21)

• 2) The First recorded successful artificial insemination of a woman was in 1790 done by a Scottish surgeon, Dr. John Hunter (reported that he successfully inseminated the wife of a linen draper, using her husband’s sperm). (17)

• 3) 1866, Marion Sims performed 55 accounts of artificial insemination for 6 women (sperm came from their husbands). Only 1 resulted in pregnancy. (17)

• 4) In 1884, the first human donor insemination had been preformed at the Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia by Dr. William Pancoast. A Quaker woman could not bear children, but found out later that it was her husband who was sterile (azoospermic). The wife was called back for “an examination” but was anesthetized and the procedure was carried out, with the donor sperm from one of Dr. Pancoast’s students. This is considered a “rape” because the Quaker woman did not know how her child was conceived. But her child became the first known child by donor insemination. (15).

To view the whole article you can visit:

http://rogerturner.org/AssistanceforPregnancy--InvitroArtificialInsemination.htm