1418 



VESICULA PROSTATICA. 



corresponding vas deferens. Its cavity is 

 that of a canal, but not so wide a one as 

 might be guessed from the exterior thickness 

 of the body ; and it opens by a distinct aper- 

 ture on the vernmontannm. 



Pinnipedia. The genitals of a young male 

 seal, probably Phoca vitulma, were examined 

 by me. Here I saw a scarcely visible linear 

 fold, which led to a longish Weberian organ 

 of about two lines in si/e. The fold lay close 

 behind a small ridge-shaped vernmontannm, 

 on which were the orifices of the vasa defe- 

 rentia, situated close to each other. As in 

 the dog, the organ is situated partly in front 

 of, partly beneath, a prostate, which in form 

 and development also corresponds with that 

 gland in the dog. 



MarxnplnHa. In DtdelpJii/s Virginiana the 

 only animal of this order whose male genitals 

 I had, no trace of the Weberian corpuscle 

 was present. 



Rodentia. The Weberian ortran showed 



manus, am 



nmphlbhis, I have 

 looked for it in vain. But certain'y the My- 

 oxus Vitclci, Dipiia JEgt/ptiacus and Cricetus 

 vulgarix exhibited a single small longitudinally- 

 folded verumontanum, which, from its situa- 

 tion between the two orifices of the vasa de- 

 ferentia, must have been the opening of a 

 Weberian organ : but this structure isclf, on 

 account of its sheer minuteness and hidden 

 situation, eluded the further searches, which 

 were made in only a few individuals. 



In Cavia cobaya the Weberian organ is, as 

 I described it .some time since*, a small 

 roundish vesicle, scarcely a line in size, which 

 has a bilobed extremity, and, as in ]\Iacro- 

 scelides, a constricted neck, which opens into 

 the uro-genital canal between the two seminal 

 ducts. The Weberian organ of the rabbit 

 and hare is very much larger. It was formerly 

 known to the older zootomists under the name 

 of the azygous seminal vesicle-}-, and has only 

 received a more accurate description and ex- 



Fig. 877. 



Wetfrian Organ of tJte Heaver (after J/'~eier.)J 

 , a, vasa deferent in; I, l>, Weberian organ; c, c, prostate; (1, d, seminal vesicles. 



great variations in occurrence, size, and shape, planation through the researches of Huschke 

 In Sciuriis vulgans, Taimas slrinfa *, Spcrmo- and Weber. 



phi/us atllius, in Mits mnscuhts and dccu- In the rabbit this organ attains a length of 



from one to one and a half inches, so that it 



* The Covper's glands of this animal are cylin- 

 drical structures of very considerable size (almost * Zur Anatomic, &c. p. 104. 

 half an inch long): they have knot-shaped thicken- | See fig. 281. Art. RODENTIA, Vol. IV. p. 393. 

 ings at their end, and are rolled up in a coil around (Rvmer Jones.) 



this extremity. The prostate consists of two large j This engraving is copied from the " Zusatze,'* 



gland lobes which have the form of a hammer. &c. 



