Martin and colleagues reported on the study of 192 sterile couples. Martin pointed out "that 33 (17%) of the men in this group were azoospermic and two more could produce no ejaculate at all. From an examination of the semen from these patients he came to several very important conclusions. He pointed out that in order to determine the potential fertility of a male patient, the semen must be fresh, because if a sample of semen is allowed to age, sperm movement is lost. However, he also noted that sperm motility could be preserved by cooling the semen sample. He also found that repeated samples of semen are necessary as some patients may produce an azoospermic sample and then at a later date can be found to have semen containing low numbers of sperm. Having examined large numbers of samples of human semen, he made detailed drawings of human spermatozoa and noted their polymorphism, particularly in relation to the variations in both size and shape of the sperm heads. He was perhaps the first person to describe twin-headed sperm and to describe sperm with two tails. He also noted the presence of cytoplasmic droplets on spermatozoa but could not explain their nature or their aetiology. He described psammoma bodies in semen and surmised that they came from the prostate. A further fundamental observation made by Edward Martin during surgery on these patients was that intratesticular sperm are immotile.

"In this paper, he [Martin] described the first epididymo-vasostomy. Initially, he carried out epididymo-vasostomies on three dogs after tying the vas proximally and then attempted this procedure on a patient with obstructive azoospermia" (Anne. M. Jequier, "Edward Martin (1859-1938). The founding father of modern clinical andrology," Int. J. Androl., 14 (1991), 1-10).

With J. Valentine Levi and M. E. Pennington.