WALTER LAWRENCE. 



demonstrated where one testis is allowed to remain in the 

 scrotum while its fellow is elevated to the abdominal cavity. 

 In this case the cryptorchid testis is about four fifths the size 

 of the normal. 



The beginning degeneration noted in testes of six-day abdom- 

 inal retention is now greatly advanced. The vacuoles which 

 characterized the preceding stage have become more or less 

 confluent, and in many tubules the desquamated epithelium is 

 not so abundant, so that the lumen of the tubules is now larger 

 and more open than in the previous stage. The lumen is not 

 completely reestablished in all cases; in many of them the central 

 area is still occupied by wide vacuoles which have not as yet 

 coalesced, while a few tubules are still cord-like in appearance. 

 Cells showing advanced necrosis are present in the lumina of 

 the seminiferous tubules and most of these are discrete, but 

 some are agglutinated into masses which appear as a single large 

 protoplasmic mass with multiple nuclei, the so-called giant cells. 

 Of these degenerating elements within the lumen, many can be 

 identified as spermatocytes and spermatids, but not as sperma- 

 tozoa. Around the periphery, however, many spermatogonia 

 and spermatocytes still remain, while an occasional spermatozoon 

 may be seen not far from the basement membrane. 



The blood vessels are somewhat more dilated in this testis 

 than in the normal and an extravasation of serous exudate into 

 the intertubular spaces, and a diapedesis of leucocytes from the 

 capillaries may be seen. 



A testis retained in the abdomen for ten days is, therefore, 

 considerably more degenerate than one retained for six days, 

 the chief difference being that in the ten-day retained testis 

 there has been further degeneration of the cellular elements with 

 a widening and often a confluence of the vacuoles. 



Sixteen-day Cryptorchid Testes. The organ appears about two 

 thirds the size of an unoperated testis, and presents no superficial 

 evidences of congestion. Microscopically the tubules show a 

 decrease in diameter, as well as a diminution in the germinal 

 epithelium content. The lumen in most cases is narrowed or 

 even filled in completely by a thin reticulum of Sertoli cell 

 cytoplasm. The number of Sertoli cells is apparently increased, 



