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SECT. XXXVI. 



OP THE GENITAL FUNCTION IN MAN. 



509. THE genital fluid is produced in the two testi- 

 cles, which hang in the scrotum, by their spermatic 

 chords, through a ring called abdominal, or through, 

 more properly, a fissure in the tendon of the external 

 oblique muscle of the abdomen. (A) Besides abundant 

 lymphatics, three orders of vessels are found in the 



testes. 



The spermatic artery, which is, in proportion to the 

 fineness of its caliber, the longest artery, by far, in the 

 system, and usually conveys blood to the testicle im- 

 mediately from the aorta. 



The ductus deferens, which carries to the vesiculae se- 

 minales the semen separated from the arterial blood. 



The pampiniform plexus of veins, which return to the 

 cava or renal vein the blood remaining after secre- 

 tion. (B) 



510. The testes are not always suspended in the 

 scrotum. In the very young male foetus, they are 

 placed in an extremely different situation, the nature 

 and successive changes of which were first accurately 

 investigated by Haller,* but have since been variously 

 stated ; and the causes of this change of situation have 

 given rise to numerous controversies. I shall derive 



* Haller's Treatise rle herniis congcnitis, reprinted in his oftuc. palholog. 

 p. 311 sq. vol. iii. Opera minor a. 



