UROGENITAL SYSTEM 107 



was sexually active, was entirely filled with a clear, jelly- 

 like substance. 



The two prostate glands are situated upon the body of 

 the urethra immediately caudad to the neck of the bladder. 

 In the Homodontomys and Teonoma they are but a couple 

 of millimeters in diameter, but in Neotoma each takes the 

 form of a cluster of transparent tubules of varying length, 

 the whole extending as far as 13 mm. 



In many rodents there is situated immediately craniad 

 of the bladder a pair of glands which have usually been 

 confused with the prostate and designated as accessory 

 lobes of that gland. Walker (1910) established in the 

 case of the white rat and the guinea pig, however, that this 

 pair of glands has a special function, and termed them the 

 coagulating glands. Their secretion coagulates the seminal 

 fluid and is necessary to the impregnation of the female. 

 Such coagulation is often noted by those who have trapped 

 numbers of rodents. In Homodontomys and Teonoma 

 these glands consist of several minute papillae, but in the 

 sexually active Neotoma they have taken the form of a 

 pair of adjacent structures consisting of a multitude of 

 very small, much convoluted tubes, transparent and gelati- 

 nous in composition. Investigators observing these glandu- 

 lar masses have usually called them "prostate 2," or (as 

 Oppel) glandula ampuUarum. 



The seminal vesicles in Homodontomys and Teonoma 

 are shrunken, and while imbedded in connective tissue, 

 take the form of a pair of small, blunt horns upon the an- 

 terior termination of the body of the urethra. They are 

 about 8 mm. in length and appear as a pair of bundles of 

 twisted threads. In Neotoma they have swollen into two 

 clusters of transparent, occasionally branched, tubes, of 

 slightly larger diameter than those of the coagulating 

 glands, extending fanwise and with a total length of some 

 25 mm. In a single Homodontomys trapped in early June 

 the seminal vesicles showed a similar seasonal development. 



