MALE ACCESSORY REPRODUCTIVE ORGANS 



Furthermore, Stilling l states that the epithelium of Cowper's 

 glands undergoes definite histological changes which depend 

 upon the occurrence of coitus. 2 



Corresponding to Cowper's glands in the male there are in 

 the female a pair of small glands situated one on each side of 

 the vagina. These are the glands of Bartholini or Duverney. 

 Their ducts open out on to the vulva, on the sides of the 

 vaginal orifice. These glands secrete a viscid fluid which helps 

 to moisten and lubricate the surface of the vulva. 



In addition to the accessory male glands described above, 

 there are, in many animals, other glands (perineal, inguinal, and 

 preputial) which are probably sexual, inasmuch as they are 

 believed to serve as means of attraction between the sexes 

 during the breeding season. 3 Most of these glands emit secre- 

 tions of a musky odour, which in the vast majority of cases is 

 peculiar to the male, and very often to the male during the 

 rutting season only. Amongst the animals in which this pecu- 

 liarity occurs are the musk deer and other kinds of deer and 

 antelopes, the musk rat, the hamster, and many other Rodentia 



Miinnlichen Geschlechtsorgane und Analdriisen der Siiugethiere," Zeitschr. f. 

 iviss. ZooL, vol. ii., 1850), Cowper's glands in the hedgehog are in reality repre- 

 sented by a pair of glands embedded in the urethral muscle (cf. Oudemans, 

 loc. cif.). The so called Cowper's glands, which, as mentioned above, 

 undergo marked cyclical changes, are situated outside the pelvis close 

 to the ischial tuberosity and the base of the penis (Linton, "A Contribution 

 to the Histology of the so-called Cowper's Glands of the Hedgehog," Anat. 

 Anz., vol. xxxi., 1907). In the absence of embryological evidence, Linton 

 appears to regard these glands as sui generis. They are shown by this 

 author to be composed of two distinct kinds of secreting acini, one lined 

 by a single layer of columnar epithelial cell's, and the other by many layers 

 of polyhedral cells. Both kinds secrete a considerable quantity of fluid, 

 containing circular bodies which are believed to be the nuclei of disin- 

 tegrated cells, though no cells in process of disintegration could be found 

 in the single-layered type of acinus. 



1 Stilling, " Uber die Cowperschen Drtisen," Virchow's Arch., vol. c., 1885. 



2 For an exhaustive account of the minute anatomy of the accessory 

 glands and ducts of the male reproductive system in the different groups of 

 Vertebrata, with full references to the literature, see Disselhorst in QppeVs 

 Lehrbuch, loc. cit. 



3 Tiedemann, Comparative Physiology, English Translation, London, 

 1834 ; Grosz, " Beitrage zur Anatomic der Geschlechtsdriisen der Insektivoren 

 und Nager," Arch. f. Mikr. Anat., vol. Ixvi., 1905. See also description of 

 prepuce (p. 242). 



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