232 



After this preparation minute whitish specks make their appear- 

 ance in the situation above mentioned, which, when examined with 

 the microscope, are found to be produced by small vesicles and 

 convoluted tubes of varied and curious shape, surrounded by a plexus 

 of small blood-vessels, which are distributed on their parietes. The 

 tubes are short, tortuous, and for the most part beset with very un- 

 equal-sized and irregular varicose dilatations, and sometimes with 

 short branches ending in rounded swollen extremities. The vesicles 

 are round or oval, like short closed segments of a varicose tube, and 

 generally with irregularly protruding outline. The walls of both 

 vesicles and tubes are formed of a fibrous connective tissue, and lined 

 with epithelium, and they enclose a consistent but clear fluid, hold- 

 ing in suspension epithelium-particles and transparent granules. This 

 description applies to the condition of the structures in question as 

 found in the infant, and up to the age of from six to ten years ; after 

 this they begin to be atrophied, so that although still present in the 

 adult, they are usually less marked ; but, on the other hand, they then 

 sometimes contain a more consistent liquid, and are occasionally di- 

 lated, so as to constitute certain forms of cysts known to occur in 

 the spermatic cord. 



As already stated, the author regards the " Corps Innomine" as 

 formed by the atrophied remains of the Wolfnan body, and there- 

 fore comparable to the so-called "organ of Rosenmuller," which is 

 found in the broad ligament of the uterus, and represents the ves- 

 tiges of the Wolffian body in the female ; and as certain vesicular 

 productions in the broad ligament may take their rise from these 

 remnants, so the author, as before remarked, has satisfied himself 

 that the origin of some of the cysts of the spermatic cord may be 

 traced to dilatation of the tubular elements of the " Corps Innomine" 

 in the male. 



The paper is illustrated by drawings representing the objects in 

 their natural size and situation, and also as seen under the microscope. 



