480 



THE EEPEODUCTIVE SYSTEM 



Lobuli epididymidis 



Ductuli efFerentes 

 testis 



Ductus epi- 

 didymidis 



.Ductulus 

 aberrans 

 superior 



The testis is encased in a robust fibre-elastic capsule, the tunica 

 albuginea, the innermost layer of which is of looser texture and very 

 vascular, hence called ike* tunica vasculosa. External to the albuginea 

 is a double-layered sac of peritoneum, the tunica vaginalis, its visceral 

 layer closely adherent to the capsule. The human testis measures 

 about one and one-half inches in length, one and one-quarter inches in 

 width and one inch in thickness. Septa continuous with the capsule 



divide it into a 

 -- Ductus deferens nu m b e r of com- 

 partments or lo- 

 bules, pyramidal in 

 shape, the apices 

 converging to an 

 anterodorsal mass 

 of dense connective 

 tissue, the medias- 

 tinum testis (cor- 

 pus High mori), 

 corresponding to a 

 hilum. The lobules 

 contain each sev- 

 eral, frequently two, 

 extensively convo- 

 luted tubules, the 

 seminiferous tu- 

 bules (tubuli con- 

 torti). When un- 

 coiled they measure 

 from one to two 

 feet. The entire 



testis contains several hundred lobules; the number has been variously 

 estimated at from one hundred to four hundred. 



Bremer (Amer. Jour. Anat., 11, 4, 1911) describes the tubuM con- 

 torti of man as tubules that may be single, ending blindly, may branch 

 or may anastomose. Huber and Curtis (Anat. Eec., 7, 6, 19f3), on 

 the contrary, state that in the adult rabbit the seminiferous / tubules 

 "present no blind ends, diverticula or nodular enlargements." Their 

 simplest form is that of an arch beginning and ending in a tubulus 

 rectus. The two limbs may lie in adjacent lobules. Complex tubules 

 are also described, resulting from the linkage of from three to twelve 



Corpus epi- 

 didymidis 



'Ductulus aberrans 

 (inferior) 



FIG. 425. THE TESTICLE WITH ITS SYSTEM OF EFFERENT 

 PASSAGES. 



Natural size. (After Toldt.) 



