THE TESTICLES. 93 



has an excretory duct that receives readily a bristle, and passes 

 obliquely forwards, between the corpus spongiosum and the ca. 

 nal of the urethra, to terminate in an oblique orifice in the latter, 

 about an inch distant from the gland. 



One or more glands, of the same description, and discovered 

 by Littre, are occasionally found just in front of Couper's. They 

 also discharge their secretion into the adjacent part of the ure- 

 thra. In my own dissections I have not met with them. 



SECT. III. OF THE TESTICLES. 



The Testicles (Testes, Didymi) are two in number, one for 

 each side of the scrotum. Being the seat of the secretion of 

 sperm or the male prolific liquor, their function is of the first im- 

 portance in the act of generation. They are of an oblong oval 

 form, somewhat compressed laterally; and present their edges 

 forwards and backwards. From being suspended near the mid- 

 dle of their posterior edge by the spermatic chord, the upper 

 end points somewhat forwards, while the lower one is directed 

 in the same degree backwards. They are about an inch and a 

 half long, by one inch in breadth, and eight or nine lines in thick- 

 ness. They are of equal size generally, but in case of a diffe- 

 rence it is in favour of the right; the latter is also remarkable 

 for being suspended higher than the left, a feature in ancient 

 statuary so universal, as to prove the vigilance and accuracy 

 of the sculptors of those days, in regard to the proportions and 

 peculiarities of the human form. "Two obvious advantages 

 attend this arrangement: one, that of the testicles passing each 

 other without the collision when the thighs are brought together; 

 and another, the facility of keeping the penis to one side, instead 

 of straight forward in the middle line of the body."* 



The testicle is enveloped by several tunics ; they are the 

 Scrotum, the Dartos, the Tunica Vaginalis, and the Tunica Al- 

 buginea. 



The Scrotum is merely a continuation of the common skin 

 from the inner side of the thighs, the perineum, and the penis, 

 and is common to the two testicles. It is a symmetrical bag, 



* Sir A. Cooper on the Testis. 1830. 



