286 GENERATIVE SYSTEM. 



principal bulk of the chord, 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 

 accompany the spermatic artery; they are small, but sufficiently 

 numerous. Though the testicle does not possess any very great 

 sensibility in health, we may vouch for its being acutely sensitive 

 in a state of disease, d Absorbents exist, both large and 

 numerous, in the chord. They are readily found alongside of the 

 venous trunks ; and not infrequently may be filled by introducing 

 mercury into the spermatic artery, e. The vas deferens, 

 though a constituent of the chord, takes at first a solitary course, 

 remote from the bloodvessels. The duct issues from the sum- 

 mit of the head of the epididymis, beginning in a series of con- 

 volutions gradually unwinding as it proceeds ; it takes an oblique 

 course nearly as high as the external ring, where it joins the 

 bloodvessels, and continues to accompany them posteriorly 

 through the inguinal canal : at the internal ring it leaves them, 

 turns inward and ascends into the pelvis, where we find it creep- 

 ing along the side of the bladder infolded in peritoneum to get to 

 the cervix, crossing under its course first the umbilical artery 

 and then the ureter ; at length it terminates by rather a con- 

 tracted orifice within the mouth of the duct of the vesicula semi- 

 nalis, just behind a little eminence in the urethra — the caput 

 galinaginis, about an inch posteriorly to the cervix of the blad- 

 der. Within the inguinal passage the duct is accompanied by 

 the artery of the vas deferens, a long slender branch of the epi- 

 gastric. Its canal, flexuous until the duct has joined the chord, 

 but straight in its subsequent course, is not uniform throughout 

 in caliber; the area of its tortuous part is large, but as it becomes 

 straight it grows contracted : having entered the pelvis, it gra- 

 dually enlarges again, and acquires unusual volume in running 

 along the side of the bladder ; and the canal of the enlarged por- 

 tion presents a reticulated structure, which gives its exterior an 

 irregular, tuberculated appearance ; the most contracted part is 

 that in union with the duct of the vesicula seminalis, which is a 

 comparatively small cylindrical conduit. The parietes of the 

 duct are so remarkably thick and firm to the feel, that we distin- 

 guish it at once by the fingers from the other parts of the chord : 

 they consist of two tunics ; the external one (in which its main 

 thickness consists) is white, fibrous, and approaches in appear- 

 ance to cartilage ; the internal one is thin and fine in texture, 

 muco-membranous in its nature, and here and there incloses a 

 reticulated structure. The different constituent parts of the chord 



