GRAFTING OF TESTICLES. 21 



7. NEW OBSERVATIONS ON GRAFTING OF TESTICLES. 



In order thoroughly to satisfy ourselves whether g-erminal transplantation 

 is possible when tissue of the male sexual gland is used as a graft, the 

 following experiments were performed on rats before ovarian work was 

 started. The operations were homoplastic and the technique simple. The 

 animals used to supply the graft were new-born males or those only a few 

 days old, while those into which the tissue was grafted were young adults 

 of the same sex. No attempt was made to unite the efferent ducts, or to 

 supply special arterial contact, the young testicle being simply dropped 

 into the tunica vaginalis after its original contents had been carefully 

 removed. 



The rat was etherized, the scrotum sterilized and opened at its discal 

 end by a small incision. The testicle was then drawn out, the tunic split, 

 and the entire contents removed, leaving - the end of the spermatic artery 

 free. The other testicle, now quickly removed from the young animal sup- 

 plying' the graft, was carefully manipulated and placed within this tunica, 

 sometimes with its own envelope intact and sometimes with one of its 

 ends cut across. The tunica, now containing the young grafted testicle, 

 was closed by fine silk sutures, the testicle replaced, and the scrotal wound 

 also closed. There was considerable extravasation of blood from the sper- 

 matic artery in a few cases, distending the tunic and sometimes leaking 

 through the sutures. The testicle of the other side was removed through 

 a small incision in the scrotum and discarded, a suture being placed around 

 its spermatic cord. 



Thirty-three rats were thus operated upon. One died six days after the 

 operation; the rest were killed at periods of from one month to two months 

 after the operation. Four of them showed small abscesses in the operative 

 region. The other twenty-eight gave no evidences of ever having been 

 infected. In general, the appearance was very uniform. The epididymis 

 was flabby, and in the region of the graft there was either a very small 

 yellowish body or nothing but a bit of connective tissue surrounding the 

 old stitches of the tunica. A number of the specimens were saved, but 

 only one was considered to be promising enough to warrant sectioning. 

 The microscopic examination was entirely negative so far as showing the 

 presence of living testicular tissue was concerned, and so the experiments 

 were discontinued. 



It is evident from our experience, as from that of others, that testicular 

 tissue is much more sensitive to injury, mechanical or otherwise, than is 

 ovarian tissue. 



