THE GEMTAL ORGANS OF THE MALE. 



963 



testis), independent of each other. Tliese lobules vary in number, from two to 

 three hundred, and all have the same organization, each being constituted by 

 two or three extremely convoluted filiform tubuli, about from one to two yards 

 in length. These tubes — the tu/ndi seminiferi — anastomose frequently with each 

 other, are intertwined, and can be unwound like a ball of thread. One of their 

 extremities terminates in a cul-de-sac ,- the other is detached from the lobule, 

 and enters a central system of excretory ducts which will be refeiTed to im- 

 mediately. 



When we cut through a testicle vertically and lengthways, so as to divide 

 the corpus Hifihmorianum into two lateral portions, there is seen in its substance 

 a whitish framework, sometimes not very apparent, which, curving upwards at 

 both extremities, extends from that body to the posterior extremity of the testicle 



Fis. 518. 



Fig. 517. 



DIAGRAM OF THE TESTICLE. 



1, Mediastinum testis, coataining 

 the rete testis ; 2, 2, trabeculi ; 

 3, one of the lobules ; 4, 4, vasa 

 recta; 5, globus m;ijor; 6, globus 

 minor: 7, vas deferens. 



A TESTICLE INJECTED WITH MERCURY. 



a, a. Lobules formed of seminiferous tubes ; h, rete 

 testis; c, vasa etierentia: (i, Hexures of the efferent 

 vessels passing into the head, e, e, of the epididy- 

 mis ; /, body of the epididymis; g, appendix; h, 

 Cauda ; t, vas deferens. 



(Fig. 518), where it disappears; from this are given off a large number of 

 fibrillae {trahecuhie testis), which diverge in all directions. A mercurial injection 

 by the vas deferens, shows that this part of the testicle is chiefly formed by a 

 ramifying system of rectilinear canals with very thin walls, which open into each 

 other, and unite, on reaching the corpus Highmori, into about twenty principal 

 trunks, from -3 mm. to *6 mm. in diameter. These are named the straif/tif canaJiciiU 

 {vasa or tuhuJl recti), to distinguish them from the convoluted tubuli (tubuli 

 contorti) : they receive the latter at their exit from the lobules, are surrounded 

 by numerous blood-vessels, and are sustained by the fibrous septa of the tunica 

 albuginea, which appear to converge towards the point they occupy. At the 

 corpus Highmorianum, the tubuli recti pass through that body, forming in its 

 texture an anastomosing network — the rete testis — and are continued into the 

 epididymis as the efferent canals {vasa efferentia). 



