SECT. 199.] ORGAN OF GIRALDES. 44 1 



walls arc yellowish-white, and lined by a cylindrical epithelium. 

 'The chief microscopical elements are connective tissue and clastic 

 fibrils, with which smooth muscular fibres are intermingled; in 

 the cervix of the vesicle tliese are less numerous than in the 

 fundus, where they are found in considerable amount. 



The glands of Coicper are compact, compound racemose glands, 

 whose terminal vesicles, o'02'" to 005"' in size, are lined by a 

 pavement-epithelium, whilst in their excretory ducts the epithelium 

 is cylindrical. The delicate envelope surrounding the entire gland, 

 as well as the fibrous stroma in the interior, is tolerably rich in 

 smooth muscular fibres, and I have recently detected these even 

 on the excretory ducts (whose width is \"'), as a delicate, longi- 

 tudinal layer. The secretion of these glands, which can be readily 

 obtained from the excretory ducts, is ordinary mucus. 



The organ of Girahli )s (corps innomind, Giraldes) is, according 

 to the observations of Sharpey and myself, a small linear body, 

 situated at the upper end of the testicle in the spermatic cord, 

 and extending along the cord on the side farthest from the vas 

 deferens. It is about half an inch long, and is of a whitish 

 colour ; on microscopical examination, it is found to consist of a 

 good number of isolated elements, in the form of tubules and 

 vesicles of very various shapes ; these are held together by a con- 

 nective tissue with blood-vessels. The tubules are either simple, 

 straight or twisted, or they are furnished with processes in such 

 numbers, that they look like portions of the prostate or of an 

 embryonic parotid. Here and there simple tubes exhibit dilata- 

 tions, and these may become so distinct as to give the appearance 

 of separate vesicles. The canals of this organ, whatever their 

 form, all consist of an envelope of connective tissue with a pave- 

 ment-epithelium, in the cells of which, in grown persons, I find a 

 good deal of fat. Contained in the tubules is a fluid, more or less 

 clear. This organ attains its greatest development, according to 

 Giraldh, in boys from six to ten years of age; this observer regards 

 it, and he is doubtless right, as the remains of the Wolffian bodv, 

 analogous to the ' appendage to the ovary ' of the female. It still 

 remains to be discovered whether this organ may not be connected 

 at its lower end with the epididymis ; and, in this case, it might be 

 considered to be nothing more than a peculiar and contorted vas 

 aberrans. 



L. Fich has recently made the statement, that the muscular structure of 

 the vas deferens is not composed of isolated fibre-cells, but of a continuous 

 web. It is true that the fibre-cells are less readily separated from each other 



