VESICULA PROSTATICA. 



1-117 



disposal from the stores of the Physiological 

 Institute of this place. 



Volitantia. Among the Bats I have found 

 a Weberian organ hitherto only in Vespcrlilio 

 muri>ius. Here it is a small corpuscle, scarcely 

 one line in size, between the ejaculatory ducts. 

 It is covered by the prostate, and opens at 

 the usual place by a small and scarcely visible 

 aperture. In Plecotus unrilits I have sought 

 after it in vain. So also in Galeopilhecus 

 variegatus, where the points of opening of the 

 two seminal ducts are placed close together 

 upon a small and elongated verumontanum. 



Inseclivom. The Erinaceus Europe/em 

 Tulpa Europcea*, Sorex arauciis, and Macro- 

 scelides Rozeti were examined : only in the 

 last is a Weberian organ present. It is a 

 roundish flask, which is proportionately of a 

 very considerable size, being fully one line 

 long, and quite as broad at the end. It opens, 

 by means of a short constricted neck, into 

 the uro-genital canal between the two seminal 

 ducts. The prostate, which consists, as in 

 the Sorex, of two compound gland-tubes, lies 

 in front of the utriculus, and close to it, but 

 without covering it. The thickened lower 

 ends of the seminal ducts receive it between 

 them, and are united to it by areolar tissue. 



Fercc. In the dog and the cat the Weberian 

 organ forms, as Weber has shown, a long 

 small bladder of some lines in size, which is, 

 for the most part, placed before the prostate 

 in a fold of peritoneum stretching between 

 the two ejaculatory ducts. There is no open- 

 ing into the urethra. 



The description of Weber f certainly holds 

 good in many instances, yet not in 'all. I 

 have examined numerous dogs and cats, and 

 have very frequently found, instead of a vesi- 

 cular structure, a simple solid cylindrical cord, 

 which I have regarded as an obliterated ru- 

 diment of the organ. In many individuals 

 even this could not be detected. I also found 

 the Weberian organ as a solid cord in the 

 fox anil leopard. The striped hyaena, on 

 the contrary, possesses an elongated flask- 

 shaped Weberian corpuscle; but it, together 

 with the ends of the seminal ducts, is hidden 

 between the two kidney-shaped halves of the 

 large prostate.]; The 'latter are only fused 

 posteriorly ; in the larger anterior half they 

 are united by areolar tissue into a common 

 mass. There is no opening into the uro- 

 genital canal, and I have found none in any 

 of the beasts of prey examined. 



The Weberian organ of the otter, which 



' The commencement of the uro-genital canal 

 in the Eimacera and Talpa, forms in an anomalous 

 manner a spacious and defined cavity. Into this 

 cavity the urethra opens, as in the female mammalia, 

 by a narrow slit-shaped aperture. This was de- 

 scribed by me some time ago (zur Anatomic, &c., 

 SS. 102. 10.3.) at which period I erroneously ex- 

 plained the cavitv as a male vagina. 



t Zusatze, &c. Tab. VII. 



j The length of the prostate is fully one and 

 a half inches; its breadth is yet larger. Cowpn's 

 glands are also of considerable size, two inches long. 

 They have a longly clavate form, and a very thick 

 covering of striped muscular libres. 



Fig. 875. 



Weberian Organ of the Hycena Striata (reduced to 



half the natural s/ze.) 



a, "Weberian organ ; I, 6, vasa deferentiti ; c, c, pro- 

 state ; d, d, Cowper's glands. 



Leydig* has described, is of unusual form, 

 and much more considerable development. 

 It lies between the urinary bladder and 

 the two seminal ducts, and consists of a 

 body about six lines in length and propor- 

 tional breadth, the upper free end of which 

 is _drawn out right and left into a long and 

 thin thread lying on the seminal duct. The 

 cavities and their openings could not be ex- 

 amined ; but without doubt both were pre- 

 sent. The Weberian organ is very similar in 

 the Meles Taxus. It is a very considerable 

 cylinder, which measures about ten lines, and 

 rises to the hinder surface of the glandular 

 ends of the vasa deferentia, being very firmly 

 united to them by areolar tissue. The upper 

 end is folded into two horns, only the right 

 of which is permeable to a short distance. 

 The left is, from its root onwards, a solid 

 thin thread, \\hich is closely attached to the 



Fig. 87G. 



If'cbcrlan Orr/an of the Badger. 



a, Weberian organ ; />, !>, vasa dcfrreiitia; c, tbrcad- 

 siiaped horns of the Weberian organ. 



* Zpitschrift fiir Wi-^'iiNcliaftlichc. Zcolog. von 

 Siebold u. Kolliker, Band II. S. j'j. 



