BOOK YIII. 



GENERATIVE APPARATUS. 



Individuals in the organic kingdom possess the faculty of reproduction, and 

 thus they perpetuate the species to which they belong. In Mammifers, the 

 generation of a new being demands the concurrence of two individuals — a maU 

 and female — who have intercourse under certain determinate circumstances. 

 The female furnishes a germ — the ovum, and the male a fertilizing fluid — the 

 semen, which vivifies the ovum, and renders it capable of development. 



We have, therefore, to study separately the generative, or genital organs of the 

 male, and those of the female. 



CHAPTER I. 



GENITAL ORGANS OF THE MALE. 



The semen is elaborated in the structure of the two testicles. These are lobular 

 glands, each of which is provided with an excretory duct, doubled a great number 

 of times on itself at its commencement, to form the epididymis, and destitute of 

 convolutions for the remainder of its extent, which is named the vas deferens. 

 This canal carries the fecundating fluid into vestcuhe seminales — reservoirs with 

 contractile walls — where it accumulates, and wnence it is expelled during copu- 

 lation, by passing through the ejandatory ducts and the urethral canal. The 

 latter is a single canal common to the two apparatuses of generation and urinary 

 depuration ; it is provided in its course with three accessory glands — the prostate 

 and Cowper's glands, and is supported by an erectile body (the corpus cavernosum), 

 with which it forms an elongated organ — the penis, which, in the act of copu- 

 lation, is introduced into the vagina, to the bottom of which it carries the 

 spermatic fluid. 



We will successively consider the secretory organs or testicles, and the excretory 

 apparatus, comprising all the other organs. 



Preparation.— To see the arrangement of the male generative organs properly, it is necessary 

 to dissect tin m in situ, and then remove them from the pelvis in order to examine them 

 thoroughly. 



Tlie subject in which tlie organs are to be examine! tn eitu should have the skin removed 

 from it, except at the parinaeum. scrotum, a portion of the inner face of the thighs, and the 

 inferior surface of the abdomen, from a transverse line passing from one haunch to the other. 

 The intestines are taken from the abdominal cavity, by dividing its walls in front of tiiat line; 

 the left posterior limb is removed, leaving the sacro-sciatic ligament which is behind it. 

 Finally, after distending the rectum and bladder, which have previously been emptied — the 

 first with tow, the second with air introduced by the ureter, which is then tied on itself — the 

 dissection of the internal genital organs can be proceeded with. This dissection is carried 



