440 THE TESTICLES AND ACCESSORY STEUCTURES. 



ramified and sacculated. Besides these tJiere are larger recesses or 

 laciinse, opening by oblique orifices turned forwards or down the canal. 

 These are most atiundaut along the floor of the urethra, especially in 

 its bulbous part. One large and conspicuous recess, situated on the 

 upper surface of the fossa navicularis, is named the lacuna magna. A 

 median fold of the membrane rising from the inferior surface of this 

 part of the urethra has been named the valve of tlie fossa navicularis. 



Cowper's glands. — In the bulbous portion of the urethra, near its 

 anterior end, are the two openings of the ducts of Coivpefs glands. 

 These small glandular bodies are seated farther back than the bulb, 

 beneath the fore part of the membranous portion of the urethra, 

 between the two layers of the subpubic fascia, the anterior layer sup- 

 porting them against the urethra. The arteries of the bulb pass above, 

 and the transverse fibres of the compressor urethrse beneath these 

 glands. They are two small firm rounded masses, about the size of 

 peas, and of a deep yellow colour. They are compound vesicular or 

 racemose glands, composed of several small lobules held together by a. 

 firm investment. This latter, as well as the walls of the ducts, con- 

 tains muscular tissue. The branched ducts which commence in saccular 

 crypts, unite outside each gland to form a single excretory duct. These 

 ducts run forward near each other for about an inch or an inch and a 

 half, first in the spongy substance and then beneath the mucous mem- 

 brane, and terminate in the floor of the bulbous part of the urethra by 

 two minute orifices opening obliquely. These glands secrete a viscid 

 fluid, the use of which is not known ; they appear to diminish in old 

 age ; sometimes there is only one present, and it is said both may be 

 absent. 



Occasionally there is a third glandular body in front of and between Cowper's 

 glands ; this has been named the anterior 2->>'ostate or anic-2)rostatic gland. 



The muscles in connection with the uretlira and penis have been 

 already described with the muscles of the periuEeum in the first volum^e. 



THE TESTICLES, AND THEIE, ACCESSORY STRUCTURES. 



The testicles or testes, the two glandular organs which secrete the 

 seminal fluid, are situated in the pouch of integument termed the scro- 

 tum, each being suspended by the spermatic cord. The latter parts 

 will be first described. 



The spermatic cord. — The parts which form this cord are the 

 excretory duct of the testicle, named the vas deferens, the spermatic 

 artery and veins, lymphatics, nerves, and connecting areolar tissue. 

 Besides this last the cord has several coverings in common with the 

 testis. The structures mentioned come together to form the cord at the 

 internal or deep abdominal ring, and, extending through the abdominal 

 wall obliquely dowuAvards and towards the middle line, escape at the 

 superficial or external abdominal ring, whence the cord descends over 

 the front of the pubes into the scrotum. 



COVEBINGS OF THE TESa?IS AND CORD. 



The inguinal cai^al. — By the term inguinal canal is understood the 

 space occupied by the spermatic cord as it passes through the abdominal 



