265 
of fibro-cartilage are also seen running into the corpus cavernosum 
which is single and median. 
The external characters of the penis in the ram have been briefly 
described by Cuvier‘), HAUSMANN?) and GARROD°®). CUVIER speaks of 
the filiform prolongation merely as an appendage of a tendinous sub- 
stance near the proximal end of which is the external opening of the 
urethra; in other words, according to Cuvier, the urethra does not 
traverse the filiform appendage. HAUSMANN’s account is more accu- 
rate, but, he, strangely enough, describes and figures the appendage 
as twisted backwards so as to point towards the base of the penis, 
and he concludes that it is in this position during coition. GARROD 
gives a brief account of the copulatory organ in a number of Rumi- 
nants. 
The twisting which the distal end of the organ has undergone in 
the case of the sheep he describes as follows: “The apex is somewhat 
enlarged, but not uniformly so, the expansion forming a partial twist _ 
from below and behind, upwards and forwards to the tip, along the 
left side of the organ”. 
The fact that the filiform prolongation is an erectile organ points 
to the conclusion that its function is insertion into the os uteri during 
coition, the fibro-cartilage bodies helping to stiffen the structure. An 
examination of the uterus shows that the os, when open, is fully large 
enough to admit the entrance of the distal portion of the penis in 
the region of the glans. If the extreme distal end does enter the os 
in this manner, the filiform prolongation must extend into the cavity 
of the uterus as far, or nearly as far, as the point where the relatively 
short corpus uteri becomes divided into the two cornua. 
The view that the filiform prolongation is inserted into the os 
uteri during coition is supported by evidence supplied by sheep breed- 
ers, who appear to have long recognised the practical side of the matter. 
For information on this subject I am indebted to Mr. R. WALLACE, 
Professor of Agriculture in the University of Edinburgh. If the pro- 
longation be cut off the ram is rendered barren. I have not been able 
to find any allusion in any published work to this method of castration 
but Professor WALLACE and also a number of breeders and shepherds 
1) Cuvier, Lecons d’Anatomie Comparée, Vol. 8, 2nd Edit., Paris 
1846. 
2) Hausmann, Ueber die Zeugung und Entstehung des wahren 
weiblichen Eies ete Hannover 1840. 
3) Garrop, Notes on the Osteology and Visceral Anatomy of Ru- 
minants. Proc. Zool. Soc. London, Vol. 45, 1877. 
