828 OF THE GENITAL FUNCTION IN MAN. 



fore to describe merely the tunica vaginalis of the chord and 

 testis. 



(F) The cremaster deserves a little attention. This muscle 

 arises from the superior anterior spinous process of the ileum, 

 from the transversalis abdominis, the internal surface of the Fal- 

 lopian ligament and neighbouring parts, and, passing through 

 the ring, spreads upon the chord, vanishing upon the beginning 

 of the testicle. Its office is evidently to support the testicle, and to 

 draw it upwards against the groin during procreation. In those 

 animals whose testes, instead of hanging in the scrotum, lie in 

 the perinaeum, in the groin, or in the abdomen, this muscle 

 is, as might be expected, much less considerable. 



It may here be mentioned that the human testes do not 

 always descend into the scrotum, but occasionally remain, one 

 or both, in the groin or abdomen. Individuals so circumstanced 

 were called x^^o^Se? or testicondi by the ancients. A ridgil 

 is a bull in which one only has descended. In these instances 

 the generative powers are not impaired ; a testicle which has not 

 descended is prevented by the pressure of the neighbouring parts 

 from fully evolving itself, but such persons, it is certain, " mili- 

 tant non sine gloria." 



The generative powers indeed are not impaired by the removal 

 of one testis : the Hottentots have been said frequently to de- 

 prive their sons of one on arriving at eight years of age,* from 

 the belief that monorchs are swift runners. We read in Varro, 

 that if a bull is admitted to a cow immediately after both testes 

 are removed, impregnation takes place, " Exemptis testiculis, 

 si statim admiseris, concipere (vaccas)."f This at least is cer- 

 tain, that some men have perfectly performed the act of copu- 

 lation, though unfruitfully, after castration. J Many such accounts 



* Wilh. ten Rhyne, De promontor. Cap. bon. spei. 22. pag. in. 64, and others 

 quoted by Schurig, Spermatologia. p. 60. 



t De Re Rustica. ii. 5. 



J See Cabrolus, Philostrate, Scaliger De subtilitate, and Martin Schurig's 

 Spermatol. Quoted in Very's Histoire naturflle de I'Homme. 



