228 CIRCULATORY SYSTEM. 



The Spermatic Arteries (tfrteriae Spermaticae, Seminales,) 

 arise from the aorta somewhat below the emulgents, but in 

 some cases from the latter themselves. They are two in num- 

 ber, one on each side, and are about the size of a crow quill in 

 the male subject, but smaller in the female. One comes off ge- 

 nerally higher up than the other; they then descend on the sides 

 of the vertebral column be/ore the psoae muscles, and cross in 

 front of the ureters, being in all this course behind the perito- 

 neum. They are tortuous, and shortly after their origin begin 

 to adhere to the spermatic veins, which adhesion is continued to 

 the testicle. 



The branches that the spermatic artery sends off in the abdo- 

 men are inconsiderable, consisting in very fine twigs to the ad- 

 jacent adipose matter, to the lymphatic glands, to the ureter, 

 and to the peritoneum. In the male subject it passes with the 

 vas deferens, through the abdominal canal, and reaching the 

 testicle divides into branches which supply the body of this gland 

 and the epididymis. In descending from the external ring to 

 the testis, some small ramifications, to the adjacent parts, leave 

 it. In the female, the spermatic artery does not leave the ca- 

 vity of the abdomen, but, descending into the pelvis, gets be- 

 tween the laminae of the broad ligament to the ovarium, and is 

 spent principally upon the latter. Some of its branches go to 

 the Fallopian Tube, to the Round Ligament of the uterus, and 

 to the sides of the latter, where they anastomose with the ute- 

 rine arteries.* 



The Lumbar Arteries (Jlrterise Lumbares) are commonly five 

 in number on either side, but seldom less than three, and in their 

 course outwards, correspond with the intercostal arteries. They 

 are much larger than the latter. They arise in pairs from the 

 posterior external face of the aorta, at a point corresponding 

 with the middle of the bodies of the four upper lumbar verte- 

 brae, and pass outwards between the fasciculi of the psoas mag- 

 nus muscle, to which, to the quadratus lumborum, and the bodies 

 of the vertebrae, they distribute several branches. Sometimes 

 each pair arises by a common trunk from the posterior face of 



* The spermatic artery pindle-shaped, the smallest end being the origin^ 

 this favours the flow of blood in it, which would otherwise suffer from so much 

 friction. 



