SCROTAL REPLACEMENT OF CRYPTORCHID TESTES. 125 



DISCUSSION. 



A consideration of the observations here presented brings 

 forcibly to our attention again the importance of the scrotum 

 to the normal activity of the testes in those mammals for which 

 a definite scrotum has been developed. It was pointed out 

 earlier that testes caused to degenerate, after having once 

 become active, by placing them in the abdomen for short periods 

 of time would in some cases recover their normal function when 

 replaced in the scrotum (Moore, '240). Such a set of conditions, 

 however, are obviously different from abdominal confinement 

 before differentiation of the embryonic cells had taken place or 

 from congenitally retained testes found in nature. And in order 

 to gain an insight into the relative powers of undescended testes 

 to acquire normal function after replacement in the scrotum, 

 this series of experiments has been made; it may give us a 

 relative answer to the possibilities of replacement of unilateral 

 cryptorchid testes and recovery of function in man, but it is 

 obvious that the answer is not absolute. 



The conclusions are evident that a guinea pig testicle retained 

 in the abdomen from shortly after birth until long after the 

 establishment of sexual maturity, a condition essentially the 

 same as a congenital retention of a testicle in man and a condition 

 in which histologically similar testes are produced, can develop 

 into a functional testis within ninety days after its replacement 

 in the scrotum. Delay in the development of a testicle to its 

 normal condition by abdominal confinement does not preclude 

 its later development when it is brought into its proper environ- 

 ment. In regard to the application of such a conclusion from 

 the guinea pig to essentially similar conditions found in nature, 

 one must be very hesitant indeed in making more of the com- 

 parison than is justified. But if we may make so bold as to 

 attempt a correlation between the findings here and their possible 

 application to man, it would appear to be well indicated that we 

 could expect scrotal replacement of a congenitally retained 

 testis of a man long after the onset of sexual maturity, to produce 

 a testis with normal spermatogenetic function within a relatively 

 short period of time. In terms of years, it is more unsafe to 

 predict the outcome. The guinea pig usually has produced 



