ORGANS OF GENERATION. 



TESTICLES AND SCROTUM. 



The preparation of the seminal fluid is 

 the office of two oval glandular bodies, called 

 the testes or testicles ; they are suspended 

 in a portion of the common integument, 

 termed the scrotum, by means of the sper- 

 matic cord and cremaster muscle. 



The scrotum is composed of the common 

 integument, sub-cellular tissue, and elastis 

 muscle, (the fibres of the latter run in a lon- 

 gitudinal direction, from the cellular sub- 

 stance of the sheath, to the base of the 

 penis), and lastly the tunica vaginalis, 

 which is a prolongation of the peritoneum. 



The testicle has a peritoneal covering, 

 termed tunica vaginalis testes, and also 

 another distinct tunic termed tunica albu- 

 ginea. The substance of the testicle is ex- 

 tremely vascular, and the ultimate branches 

 of its spermatic arteries are collected into 

 small bundles of fine convaluted vessels, 

 separated from one another by septulae, or 

 membranous partitions. From these the 

 vasa seminifera, or beginnings of excretory 

 ducts, take their origin, and gradually unite 

 to form a smaller number of canals of 

 larger diameter, but exceedingly tortuous in 

 their course. The testicle is also supplied 

 with nerves and absorbents, secretory and 

 excretory vessels. 



SPERMATIC CORD.* 



The spermatic cord, the substance by 

 means of which the testicle is connected with 

 the abdomen, and by means of which it is 

 suspended within its scrotal cavity, is com- 

 posed in the following manner : 1st. It has 

 four coverings ; there is immediately under- 

 neath the skin the faschia superficialis ; next, 

 the cremaster muscle ; thirdly, the tunica 



* Percivall. 



vaginalis; and lastly, the tunica vaginalis 

 reflexa. Within the cavity formed by the 

 vaginal tunic, it is that the intestine protrudes 

 in inguinal and scrotal hernia ; the hernial 

 coverings, consequently, exclusive of the sac, 

 will be the faschia and cremaster muscle. 



2ndly. The constituent parts of the cord 

 itself, are : a. The arteries, which are two 

 in number ; the artery of the cord, a small 

 branch of the external iliac, which ramifies 

 and expands itself upon the cord ; and the 

 spermatic artery, which, as soon as it 

 reaches the internal ring, enters the inguinal 

 canal, runs down the posterior part of the 

 cord, growing tertuous as it descends, ser- 

 pentines along the superior border of the 

 testes, between it and the epididymis, winds 

 round the anterior end of the gland, and 

 lastly reaches the convex border, where it 

 becomes extremely convoluted, and whereto 

 its branches are principally distributed. In 

 its descent it detaches small unimportant 

 twigs to the adjacent parts ; and, as it ap- 

 proaches the testicle, becomes surrounded 

 by an assemblage of venous vessels, b. 

 The veins accompany their corresponding 

 arteries, and they indeed may be said to 

 make up the principal bulk of the cord, 

 for they are not only numerous, but large 

 and flexuous, and, as they approach the 

 testicle, form a sort of plexus, which has got 

 the name of corpus pampiniforme : they 

 return their blood into the posterior vena 

 cava. c. The nerves, which are derived 

 from the hypogastric plexus, also accom- 

 pany the spermatic artery : they are small, 

 but sufficiently numerous. Though the 

 testicle does not possess any very great sen- 

 sibility in health, we may vouch for its 

 being acutely sensitive in a state of disease. 

 d. Absorbents exist, both large and numer- 

 ous, in the cord. They are readily found 



