DEVELOPMENT OF THE WOLFFIAN DUCTa 



415 



the Mullerian ducts. The latter (Fig. 320, w) lies imme- 

 diately inside the former (Fig. 320 m). Both open pos- 

 teriorly into the cloaca. 



Obscure and uncertain as 

 is the origin of the Mullerian 

 and Wolffian ducts, their later 

 history is clear and definite. 

 In all Double-nostrilled (^m- 

 phirhina) and Jaw-moutbed 

 (Ghuithostoini) animals, from 

 Primitive Fishes up to Man, 

 the Wolffian duct becomes the 

 seed-duct, and the Miillerian 

 duct, the oviduct. In each 

 sex only one of these is per- 



Fios. 322, 323. — Urinary and sexnal 

 organs of an Amphibian (Water- Newt, 

 or Triton). Fig. 322 (A), female; 

 Fig. 323 (B), male : r, primitire kid- 

 ney ; ov, ovary ; od, egg -dnct and 

 Rathke'e duct, both formed from the 

 Mullerian duct ; u, primitive urinary 

 duct — acting, in man, also as seed- 

 duot (v«) — opening below into WolfFs 

 duct (tt') ; ms, ovary-mesentery {ma- 

 ova/rwm). (After Gegenbaur.) 



sistent; the other entirely disappears, or leaves only a 

 remnant as a rudimentary organ. In the male sex, in 

 which the two Wolffian ducts become sperm-ducts, certain 

 rudiments of the Mullerian duct are often found, which 

 we will caU " Rathke's canals " (Fig. 323, c). In the female 

 «ex, where, on the contrary, the two Miillerian ducts 

 60 



