TESTICLE (ABNORMAL ANATOMY). 



might readily be mistaken for an additional 

 testicle. Morgagni mentions that he was once 

 deceived by a portion of omentum. In the 

 pathological collection at St. Thomas's Hos- 

 pital is preserved the testicle of the eccentric 

 Dr. Mousey, who appeared during life to be 

 supplied with three of these glands. The sup- 

 posed additional testicle consists of an in- 

 durated fibrous tumour attached apparently 

 to the tunica vaginalis. 



Many instances of monor chides, or persons 

 having only a single testicle are also mentioned 

 by the old authors ; but as the data are very 

 imperfect, and as little was known respecting 

 the transition of the testicle at the time these 

 cases were recorded, they must be viewed 

 with great suspicion. They were most pro- 

 bably cases in which one of the glands was 

 either retained within the abdomen, or, from 

 some cause had been completely atrophied. 

 I know no satisfactory reason why a defici- 

 ency of one or both testicles should not 

 occasionally occur without any other mal- 

 formation ; but they are anomalies of which 

 there are few authentic examples in the 

 annals of medical science. Mr. Paget has 

 published the particulars of a case in which 

 he believes one testicle was deficient at birth.* 

 No account of the man is attached to the 

 particulars of the dissection, and it is open to 

 question whether the deficiency of the gland 

 was not the result of atrophy. Dr. Fisher, of 

 Boston f, has recorded a more satisfactory 

 example of absence of both testicles. The dej 

 ficiency was remarked from birth, and the sub- 

 ject of the malformation was regarded as a na- 

 tural eunuch, and died at the age of forty-five. 



Mr. Thurnham has published an account of 

 the dissection of an infant who died at the age 

 of four months. In addition to an atrophied 

 condition of the right kidney, and a remark- 

 able malformation of the ureters, it was found 

 that neither of the testicles had descended. 

 The right lay in the abdominal cavity, just 

 above the inguinal canal. On the left side no 

 testicle would appear to have been formed ; 

 the spermatic vessels on this side terminated 

 in a little mass of fat ; the vas deferens, how- 

 ever, was present, and was apparently as well 

 developed as that of the perfect testicle. { A 

 case of monstrosity is related byDr.Friese in 

 Casper's Wochenschrift.$ The child lived 

 only half an hour : in addition to the absence 

 of the external genital organs, there were 

 neither testes, vasa deferentia, nor vesiculae 

 seminales. Cases, however, in which the 

 whole of the genital apparatus is deficient or 

 irregularly formed, do not come within the 

 scope of this article. Geoffrey St. Hilaire has 

 recorded a remarkable, and so far as I know, 

 unique case of union of the testicles in the 

 abdomen. II 



* London Medical Gazette, vol. xxviii. p. 817. 



t American Journal of the American Sciences, 

 vol. xxiii. p. 352. 



J London Medical Gazette, vol. xx. p. 717. 



Dec. 25. 1841. Quoted in the British and Fo- 

 reign Medical Review for April 1842, p. 527. 



|| Hist, des Anomal. de 1'Organ. t. i. p. 542. 



987 



Deficiencies and imperfections of the vas 

 deferens. In Mr. Paget's case of supposed 

 absence of the testicle it is stated, that the 

 vas deferens terminated nearly opposite the 

 external ring in a rounded cul-de-sac; and in 

 Dr. Fisher's case of deficiency of both testicles, 

 that the vasa deferentia, though properly 

 formed and nearly of natural size, terminated 

 in cul-de-sacs at the end of the cord. In the 

 museum of St. Bartholomew's Hospital, there 

 is a preparation taken from a man fifty years 

 of age, who died of strangulated hernia. A 

 piece of intestine was strictured by a band of 

 adhesion connected with the mesentery, and 

 the testicle was detained in the upper open- 

 ing of the ring. On dissection of the parts, 

 the vas deferens was found to terminate near 

 the testicle in a cul-de-sac. The gland was 

 very small, and its structure appeared granular 

 like the undeveloped testicle of a youth. There 

 was no trace of the epididymis. Mr. Hunter 

 in dissecting a male subject found the vasa 

 deferentia not only deficient near the testicles, 

 but terminating below in a single irregularly 

 formed vesicula seminalis, and having no com- 

 munication with the urethra.* There are a 

 few other cases on record, in which the vas 

 deferens has been defective at the extremity 

 which joins the ejaculatory canal. Thus, 

 Tenon, in the dissection of an infant affected 

 with extraversion of the bladder, found that 

 the vasa deferentia terminated separately at 

 the bottom of the pelvis, in two white tuber- 

 cles : the scrotum, testes, and vesiculae semi- 

 nales were in a natural state, f But besides 

 these imperfections at its two extremities, this 

 duct has been found wanting throughout nearly 

 its whole extent. Brugnoni mentions, that 

 in dissecting the parts of generation in a robust 

 man, from twenty-six to twenty-seven years 

 of age, he found the right epididymis almost 

 entirely absent, the only part remaining being 

 the head, which formed nodules filled with 

 semen. The rest of the epididymis and the 

 vas deferens were wanting, without any mark 

 of disease. The testicle was perfectly sound, 

 and nearly of the same size as the left one. 

 On examining the corresponding vesicula 

 seminalis he found at its anterior extremity a 

 portion of the canal of the vas deferens about 

 an inch in length, and properly formed. The 

 vesicula seminalis itself was flaccid and quite 

 empty ; whilst the left was full of semen. He 

 remarks, that although this vicious conforma- 

 tion was according to all appearances con- 

 genital, nevertheless the vesicula seminalis and 

 ejaculatory canal had preserved their natural 

 cavities. J In a case related by Bosscha, the 

 left vas deferens of a robust man terminated in 

 a blind extremity near the testicle, the rest 

 of the canal being wanting. There was the 

 rudiment of a left vesicula seminalis in the 



* Works by Palmer, vol. iv. p. 23. 



f Mem sur quelques Vices des Voies Urinaires, &c. 

 n Mem. de 1'Acad. Roy. des Sciences a Paris, 1761, 

 p. 115. 



J Observ. Anat. sur les Vesicules Seminales. 

 Me'm de 1'Acad. Roy. des Sciences k Turin, 1786, 

 and 1787, p. G25. 



