788 



GENERATION. 



sel may be made to undergo energetic, peristaltic movements, and this has 

 followed stimulation of that portion of the spinal cord corresponding to the 

 fourth lumbar vertebra, which is described by Budge as the genito-spinal 

 centre. 



The mucous membrane of the vas deferens is pale, thrown into longitu- 

 dinal folds in the greatest part of the canal, and presents a number of addi- 



tional rugae in the sacculated portion, 

 these rugae enclosing little, irregularly 

 polygonal spaces. The membrane is 

 covered with columnar epithelium, 

 which is not ciliated. In the sacculated 

 portion are large numbers of mucous 

 glands. 



Attached to the vas deferens, near 

 the head of the epididymis, is a little 

 mass of convoluted and sacculated tubes, 

 called the organ of Giraldes, or the cor- 

 pus innominatum. The body is -j- to ^ 

 of an inch (4-2 to 8'5 mm.) long and ^ 

 of an inch (2-1 mm.) broad. Its tubes 

 are lined with cells of pavement-epithe- 

 lium, which often are filled with fatty 

 granules. Generally the tubes present 



i IT i < i * i 



only blind extremities, but some of them 

 occasionally communicate with the tubes 

 of the epididymis. This part has no 

 physiological importance. It was re- 

 garded by Giraldes as the remnant of the Wolffian body, analogous to the 

 parovarium. 



VesiculcB Seminales. Attached to the base of the bladder and situated 

 externally to the vasa deferentia, are the two vesiculae seminales. These 

 bodies are each composed of a coiled and sacculated tube, four to six inches 

 (10 to 15 centimetres) in length when unravelled, and somewhat convoluted, 

 in the natural state, into an ovoid mass which is firmly bound to the vesical 

 wall. The structure of the seminal vesicles is not very unlike that of the 

 sacculated portion of the vasa deferentia. They have an external, fibrous 

 coat, a middle coat of muscular fibres, and a mucous lining. Muscular fibres 

 pass over these vesicles from the bladder, both in a longitudinal and in a cir- 

 cular direction, and serve as compressors, by the action of which their con- 

 tents may be discharged. The mucous coat is pale, finely reticulated, and 

 covered with cells of polygonal epithelium, which are nucleated and contain 

 brownish granules. The vesiculae seminales undoubtedly serve, in part at 

 least, as receptacles for the seminal fluid, as their contents often present a 

 greater or less number of spermatozoids. Although the membrane of the 

 vesicles seems to produce an independent secretion, the presence of mucous 

 glands has not been demonstrated. 



FIG. 287. Vas deferens, vesiculce seminales and 



ejacuiatory ducts (Liegeois). 



