708 . THE VEINS. 



Testicular vein. — The radicles which constitute this vein present, at their 

 emergence from the superior border of the testicle, a flexiform and very com- 

 plicated arrangement, enlacing, turning, and inflecting themselves in a thousand 

 ways around the convolutions of the great spermatic artery, and ascending in 

 this manner towards the neck of the abdominal ring, which they pass through, 

 usually after joining to form two trunks. These rise towards the sublumbar 

 region, beneath the peritoneum, in a fold of which they are at first included ; 

 they communicate with one another in their course by anastomosing branches, 

 and are generally united into a single spermatic vein, which opens into the vena 

 cava near the renal vein (Fig. 389, 8). 



Utero-ovarian vein. — This vein — which is very voluminous — enters the vena 

 cava at the same point as the corresponding vessel in the male, and proceeds, 

 as its name indicates, from the ovaries and uterus by flexuous and reticular 

 branches, the fusion of which into a single trunk only takes place near the vena 

 cava. 



Lumbar Veins. 



Satellites of the arteries of the same name, these vessels enter the vena cava 

 separately. The most anterior often open into the vena azygos. 



Common Iliac Veins. 



This appellation is given to two enormous vessels, into which are collected 

 all the veins of the abdominal limb and the posterior part of the trunk — very 

 short vessels, that, by their junction, form the posterior vena cava (Fig. 389, 

 3, 4). 



The common iliac vein is lodged in the angle of separation comprised between 

 the external and internal iliac arteries, and is a continuation of the two satellite 

 veins of these vessels. The right — shorter than the other — passes above the 

 external iliac artery to join the vena cava at its origin. The left — longer — 

 insinuates itself between the body of the second last lumbar vertebra and the 

 terminal extremity of the posterior aorta, to open into the other. 



If we trace — as was done with the veins of the anterior extremity — from the 

 ungual region to the pelvis, all the branches which concur in the formation of 

 these two trunks, we shall find, as the common point of departure for each, a rich 

 suhungiial plexus, from which spring two digital veins. To these succeed three 

 metatarsal veins, the common origin of all the vessels of the leg. These latter 

 are distinguished as superficial and deep, and are four in number — two saphena 

 veins in the first group, and two tibial veins in the second — continued by the 

 popliteal vein. This vessel is itself continued by the femoral and extermd iliac 

 veins, which finally form the common iliac, by opening into the internal iliac vein. 



All these vessels will be studied in an inverse order to that in which they 

 have been enumerated, and as follows : — 



1. Internal iliac vein. 



2. External iliac vein. 



3. Femoral vein. 



4. Popliteal vein. 



5. Beep veiiis of the leg. 



6. Superficial veins of the leg. 



7. Metatarsal veins. 



8. Veiyis of the digital region. 



