62 



opeos into the urethra on its ventro-lateral aspect and behind the 

 opening of the true prostate. 



Concerning the nomenclature of the glands there has been a dif- 

 ference of opinion among authors. Joh. MtJLLER (3), R. Wagner (4), 

 Carus (5), Seubert (6), Cuvier (7), Rhymer Jones (8) and Owen (9) 

 call them Cowper's glands ; while Leydig and Oudemans consider them 

 as a second pair of prostates ; Leydig maintaining that they are merely 

 a separated portion of the true prostate, and with the same histological 

 characters; thus diifering from all Cowper's glands known to him. 

 Oudemans also states that the structure of these glands is identical with 

 that of the true prostate, and calls them prostate No. 2. Treviranus (10) 

 considered them as lower seminal vesicles. Leydig first drew attention 

 to the glands embedded in the urethral muscle and called them Cowper's 

 glands; they have been more fully worked up by Oudemans who 

 adheres to Leydigs nomenclature. Oudemans gives very good figures 

 representing the situation of the various glands, but with his description 

 and figure of the histology of the extra-pelvic glands I cannot entirely 

 agree. The structure of the true prostate gland, as I have found it, 

 agrees with Oudemans' description. 



For the investigation of these glands I have employed the following 

 material: Two fully mature hedgehogs taken in July; one equally 

 mature taken on June 2ud, and a similar one on June 16th. Three 

 animals not fully grown were killed on March 16th, June 12th and 

 June 28th respectively. Lastly, a full grown hedgehog was taken 

 on October 22nd while the animal was hibernating. The subjects 

 were obtained alive and killed by chloroform; the tissues being fixed 

 immediately after death, some in 10 7o formaldehyde solution and 

 some in picro- corrosive solution. Some of the glands were cut and 

 mounted serially, while in others sections were obtained from dift'erent 

 parts of the glands. 



It has been previously shown by John Hunter (U), Owen and, 

 more recently, by J. Griffiths (12) that the accessory sexual glands 

 of the hedgehog undergo a metamorphosis during the different periods 

 of the year. Griffiths terms the two periods of sexual activity and 

 sexual abstinence the "active" and the "quiescent" stages. He deals 

 mainly with the prostate gland but states that the same changes occur 

 in Cowper's glands, by which I assume that he means the glands 

 under discussion and not the "Cowper's glands" of Leydig and of 

 Oudemans. 



The structure of the glands as I have found it in the sexually 

 mature animal during the breeding season will be discussed first. The 



