OP THE GKMTAL FUNCTION IN MAN. 319 



veying blood and secreting semen,* the latter of which 

 is carried, through the rete vasculosum of Mailer f and 

 the vasa eflerentia of de Graaf, to the apices of the 

 cones of the epididymis.i 



524. The Epididymis, lying on the side of the testicle 

 and consisting of one vessel about thirty feet in length, 

 is smaller, and divided into about twenty glomerules or 

 cones at the part called its head, and is continued 

 into the vas deferens, at its lower part, which gradually 

 becomes thicker || and is denominated its tail. 



525. Each vas deferens, ascending towards the neck 

 of the urinary bladder and converging towards the 

 other under the prostate gland, is then directed back- 

 wards and dilated into the vesiculae seminales, in such 

 a manner, that the common mouth both of the vesicles 

 and vasa defcrentia opens into the urethra, behind the 

 caput gallinaginis.** 



526. The vesiculce seminales, which adhere to the pos- 

 terior and inferior surface of the bladder, surrounded 

 by an abundance of fat, resemble two little intestines 

 winding in various directions and branching into nume- 

 rous blind appendices. 



They consist of two coats, nearly similar to those of 

 the gall bladder: the one strong, and of the descrip- 

 tion usually termed nervous; the other interior, deli- 



* The celebrated Sommerring was so successful as to inject all the vessels 

 composing the testis, and the entire head of the epididymis, with mercury. 

 liber die kurperl. Versch. des negers vom Europaer. p. 38. 



f Haller, De viis seminis in the Philos. Trans. No. 494. fig. 1. g. g. 



J De Graaf, De f'iror. organis generationi itiservientibus. Tab. iv. fig. 1,2. 



Vide Alex. Monro fil. Observations anatomical and physiological. Kdinb. 

 USB. 8vo. tab. i. E. E. E. F. G. H. 



[| B. S. Alhinus, Aunulnt. sicarl. L. ii. tab. iii. fig. 1. 



* B. S. Albinus, I.e. L. iv. Ub. iii. fig-. 1,2.3. 



