992 



TESTICLE (ABNORMAL ANATOMY). 



is very indistinctly developed. No sperma- 

 tozoa could be detected. These were clearly 

 instances of arrest of development of the tes- 

 ticles. As these organs are chiefly excited to 

 action by an operation of the mind, it is easy 

 to understand that they may sometimes re- 

 main undeveloped owing to defective organi- 

 sation of the brain, an absence of sexual 

 desires being invariably remarked in these 

 cases. Cases of wasting of the testicles after 

 injuries of the head, and the frequent absence 

 of the venereal appetite in cretins and idiots, 

 tend to strengthen this opinion. The follow- 

 ing are marked examples of defective develop- 

 ment of the sexual organs, accompanied with 

 imperfection of the brain. An idiot, aged 

 nineteen, subject to epileptic fits, died of 

 typhus fever in the Hackney union. The 

 youth was of short stature, and the form of 

 the body was not indicative of either sex, but 

 the contour was rounded as in the female. 

 There was no appearance of hair about the 

 face or pubes. The abdomen and other parts 

 were covered with a thick layer of fat. The 

 penis and scrotum were remarkably small, not 

 larger than they are usually found in a child 

 two or three years of age. Both testicles 

 were in the scrotum, but they were of very 

 diminutive size ; the right weighed less than 

 a drachm, and the left not more than twenty 

 three grains. The right gland had descended 

 a very little way below the abdominal ring. 

 The glandular structure and epididymis of 

 both testicles were indistinct, and the vasa 

 deferentia also extremely small. Nothing re- 

 markable was observed in the structure of the 

 brain. Mr. Hovell, the surgeon of the union, 

 also showed me another inmate of the same 

 workhouse, a lad aged nineteen, and of weak 

 mind, whose penis and testicles did not exceed 

 in size those of a boy seven or eight years of 

 age, and who had only a few scattered hairs 

 on the pubes. In the museum at Fort Pitt, 

 Chatham, are preserved two undeveloped 

 testicles about the size of those of a child 

 six months old, but healthy in structure, 

 which were taken from a lunatic 58 years of 

 age. His penis was small and he had never 

 experienced any inclination for sexual inter- 

 course. 



Wasting. In investigating the alterations 

 in the nutritive condition of the testicle, it is 

 very desirable to fix, if possible, some standard 

 by which they may be estimated. The size of 

 the gland is neither uniform nor conveniently 

 appreciated. Its weight, likewise, varies so 

 much in different persons and in the same in- 

 dividual at different periods, according as it 

 has lately exercised its functions or remained 

 inactive, and as it is full of semen or empty, 

 that it is scarcely possible to determine on any 

 accurate standard of this kind. (See p. 976.) 



I should consider the testicle of an adult 

 weighing less than three drachms as in a 

 state of atrophy. A testicle in an advaced 

 state of wasting, not arising from disease of 

 the gland, usually preserves its shape, but 

 feels soft, having lost its elasticity and firm- 



ness. Its texture is pale and exhibits few- 

 blood-vessels, the tubuli and septa dividing 

 the lobes are indistinct, and the former cannot 

 be so readily drawn out into shreds as before. 

 The epididymis does not usually waste so 

 soon nor in the same degree as the body of 

 the testicle. It sometimes however, loses its 

 characteristic appearance, and I have even 

 found it reduced to a few fibrous threads. 

 The fluid pressed out of the wasted testicle 

 and epididymis is entirely destitute of sper- 

 matic granules and spermatozoa. In many 

 instances adipose tissue is deposited behind 

 the tunica vaginalis, and encroaches on the 

 epididymis and posterior part of the testicle. 

 Fatty matter is also found in the glandular sub- 

 stance of atrophied testicles, as in one taken 

 from a man aged forty-six, who died of dropy 

 consequent on disease of the kidneys, which 

 was wasted to one fifth its natural size. In ad- 

 dition to the presence of adipose tissue be- 

 neath the visceral portion of the tunica vagin- 

 alis, I recognised a quantity of yellow matter 

 irregularly disposed amongst the wasted tu- 

 buli. This matter on examination in the mi- 

 croscope, proved to be oil globules, and readily 

 dissolved on the application of ether. The 

 structures composing the spermatic cord un- 

 dergo a corresponding diminution ; the cre- 

 master muscle disappears, the nerves shrink, 

 and the vessels are reduced in size and num- 

 ber. The vas deferens, though small, can ge- 

 nerally be injected with mercury as far as the 

 commencement of the epididymis. A testicle, 

 atrophied from disease, is not only of dimin- 

 ished size and weight, but is altered in shape, 

 being uneven and irregular, and sometimes of 

 an elongated form. The surfaces of the tunica 

 vaginalis are adherent and its cavity is partly 

 or entirely obliterated. There is no, or very 

 little, trace of the proper glandular structure, 

 the organ being converted into fibrous tissue 

 of a firm texture. It loses its peculiar sensi- 

 bility to pressure, but is sometimes the seat of 

 morbid sensibility. 



All those causes which produce decay 

 in other parts likewise occasion wasting of 

 the testicle. Thus an impeded circulation, 

 pressure, want of exercise, and loss of nervous 

 influence, have been noticed as causes of 

 atrophy of this gland. To these must be 

 added certain causes which specially affect the 

 testicle. The following case, related by Mr. 

 Wardrop, is a good example of atrophy from 

 defective nutrition. A person, both of whose 

 testicles were completely absorbed, nothing 

 being felt in the scrotum but a loose vaginal 

 coat, died of an aneurism of the aorta, formed 

 at the origin of the spermatic arteries, both 

 of which were obliterated.* A ligature on 

 the spermatic artery is sufficient to cause 

 a total decay of the testicle, which induced 

 the celebrated Harvey f to propose its ap- 



* Note to his edition of Baillie's works, vol. ii. 

 p. 315. 



t Anatomical Exercitations concerning the 

 Generation of Living Creatures. Loud. 1653, pp. 

 113, 114. 



