GENERATIVE SYSTEM. 291 



The Vesicii/ce Seminales 



Are two oblong, membranous sacs, placed contiguously to the 

 terminations of the vasa deferentia, which have been so denomi- 

 nated from a supposition that they were receptacles for the semen. 

 They occupy the lateral intervals left between the bladder and the 

 rectum, with their internal prominences, while their external are 

 opposed to the sides of the pelvis. They are principally sustained 

 in their places by the bladder. In relation to each other, they 

 represent ift situ the two sides of a triangle : for their posterior 

 extremities are nearly in contact, while their bases diverge as 

 they advance, and leave a considerable breadth of interspace. 

 The longitudinal channel between the bladder and vesicula is 

 occupied by the vas deferens. The vesiculse are confined in their 

 situation by cellular connexions with the bladder and rectum, the 

 walls of the pelvis, and the vasa deferentia. 



Form aud Strticture. — These bodies have a near approach to 

 the pyriform. Anteriorly they present broad round bases, which 

 are elongated posteriorly into contracted circular necks, and the 

 necks end in ducts of some length, which may (to carry the re- 

 semblance on) be said to represent the stalks of the pears : they 

 incline, however, to convexity superiorly and to flatness inferiorly, 

 and their surfaces are rendered uneven by some tubercular emi- 

 nences. The parietes of the vesicula are distinguishable into 

 two textures. The external one, when cleared of the enveloping 

 cellular substance, is white, and, though soft to the feel and not 

 so thick as the outer tunic of the vas deferens, possesses con- 

 siderable density and toughness, and in some parts, particularly 

 around the base, assumes a fibrous texture : these fibres are 

 described as muscular, and certainly the functions attributed to 

 the vesiculse appear to warrant such a supposition, even were we 

 unconvinced of its truth from anatomical inspection — which, I 

 should say, we certainly are. This tunic is lined with a mem- 

 brane, whose surface is of the papillary description — every where 

 presenting to view (through a magnifying glass more plainly) 

 numerous pinhole-like perforations, the orifices of subjacent fol- 

 licles furnishing the whitish, viscous, jelly-like secretion peculiar 

 to these bodies. Their ducts are of considerable volume, not 

 greatly inferior even to the urethra itself: both proceed back- 

 ward in a convergent direction in union with the vasa deferentia, 

 alongside of the membranous part of the urethra, and terminate 

 behind the verumontanum. 



