THE WOLFFIAN AND MULLERIAN DUCTS. 



809 



scribed as such, have in reality the same origin as the lining mem- 

 brane of the pleuro-peritoneal cavity. 



Fig. 605. 



Fig. 605. — DiAGRAiniATic Out- 

 line OF THE Wolffian Bodies 



IN THEIR RELATIONS TO THE 

 EUDIJIENTS OF THE RErRODUC- 



TivE Organs (A. T.). 



ot, Seat of origin of the ovaries 

 or testes ; W, Wolffian bodies ; 

 11', w, Wolffian chicts ; m, m, 

 jVIiillerian ducts ; r/c, genital cord ; 

 ■iig, sinus iirogeuitalis ; /, intes- 

 tine ; cl, cloaca. 



These ducts at first unite 

 with the Wolffian ducts on 

 each side separately, but 

 later they become separated 

 from them and conjoined 

 at their lower or posterior 

 extremity, and in the de- 

 velopment of the female 

 type the uterus results 



from the further growth of this median or united part, while in the 

 male sex the prostatic vesicle and gland may be looked upon as its 

 nearest representative, and other partial vestiges of the female passages 

 are to be found in the human species and in various degrees in 

 different mammals. 



. The Wolffian duct, as has already been stated, becomes the vas 

 deferens of the testicle, while the secreting part of the gland, com- 

 prising the tubuli seminiferi and the rete testis, are developed in the 

 reproductive blastema of the intermediate cell mass. The union of 

 these two parts of the male organs through the coni vasculosi and the 

 epididymis is brought about by the development of the eflFerent vessels 

 in the upper part, or what may appropriately be termed the sexual part 

 of the Wolffian body, as this structure has been shown by Banks and 

 others to differ from the lower and larger part of the organ by the 

 absence of the vascular tufts or glomerular arrangement in connection 

 ^vith its tubes. The convoluted tubes forming the efferent vessels, 

 which fi-om the time of their first production are in communication 

 with the upper part of the Wolffian duct, become subsequently con- 

 nected with the vessels of the rete testis, and thus the original Wolffian 

 duct becomes in its upper part the tube of the epididymis, and in its 

 lower the main excretory duct or vas deferens of the testis. 



Homologies of theWolffian body; — An interesting view of the cor- 

 respondence of the urino-genital organs in different animals is pre- 

 sented by the recent observations of embryologists on the formation of 

 the Wolffian bodies. It was ascertained by His, Bornhaupt, Rosenberg 

 and Goette, that in the lower vertebrates a second body similar to the 

 Wolffian was formed later in connection with its main duct ; and 

 the researches of Balfour and Semper have shown that in the selachians 

 the permanent kidneys, which had long been believed to be the same 



