THE MALE GENITAL ORGANS. 867 



border ; they then unite at the mesial line, below the anal opening, thus 

 forming around the terminal extremity of the rectum a real suspensory ring. 

 Lying together, and intimately united, they are continued on the accelerator, 

 which they follow at the raphe, and are eventually lost in its texture near 

 the free extremity of the penis. 



These cords are composed of unstriped muscular fibres. 



B. SHEATH (prepuce). The sheuth is a cavity formed by a fold of the 

 abdominal integument, and lodges the free portion of the penis ; it is 

 entirely effaced at the moment of erection, when the copulatory organ is 

 lengthened and enlarged. The skin at the opening of the sheath enters its 

 cavity, and, on arriving at the free portion of the penis, forms a circular 

 cul-de-sac in becoming reflected over the organ, which it envelops. 



This lining integument of the sheath is fine, and very irregularly 

 plicated ; it is destitute of hair, and holds a middle place, with regard to 

 organisation, between the skin and mucous membranes. It contains in, or 

 beneath, its substance a considerable number of sebaceous or prceputial glands 

 that secrete an unctuous fatty matter (exhaling a pecular odour, and dark- 

 grey in colour, the smegma prceputii), which is spread over the surface of 

 the membrane. 



Above, the inner integument of the sheath is applied to the fibrous tunic 

 of the abdomen. Below, and on each side, the cutaneous fold constituting 

 this cavity contains between its layers an expansion of yellow elastic fibrous- 

 tissue, the lateral portions of which, attached to the abdominal tunic, are 

 named the suspensory ligaments of the sheath. 



In the Ass, there exists, near the entrance to the sheath, and on each side, 

 a small tubercle which may be looked upon as a rudimentary teat of the 

 female. 



(The prepuce protects the penis, and sustains it when in a flaccid state. 

 In certain Horses, a gurgling sound is produced in trotting, from the air 

 entering and leaving the sheath suddenly.) 



DIFFERENTIAL CHARACTERS IN THE MALE GENITAL ORGANS OF OTHER THAN SOLIPED 



ANIMALS. 



RUMINANTS. Testicles. In these animals, the testicles are very voluminous, oval, 

 and vertically elongated. They, with their envelopes, form a pendant mass that occupies 

 the inguinal region. The scrotum is always of a pale colour. In the interior of the 

 testicle, the corpus Highmorianum and the rete testis are very marked. (The proper 

 tissue is yellow, and the septa formed by the prolongations of the tunica albuginea are 

 not very distinctly seen.) 



Epididymis. Vas deferens. The head of the epiclidymis is wide and flat, and partly 

 covers the anterior border of the testicle. The middle portion, smaller than in Solipeds, 

 represents a narrow cord lying outside the posterior border of the seminal gland. The 

 tail is a little free appendage, inflected inwards and upwards to become continuous with 

 the vas deferens. The latter is dilated, as in the Horse, when it arrives above the bladder, 

 and lies beside the duct of the opposite side. The two, thus joined, increase from before 

 to behind, leave the neck of the bladder in passing above the vesiculse seminales, then 

 go beneath the prostate, and terminate in the urethra, on the summit of a ridge, by two 

 elliptical orifices. 



Vesiculse seminales. In the Bull, the vesiculss seminales have not the same appearance 

 as in the Horse, and they have not so large a cavity in their interior. They are two 

 elongated masses, tabulated on their surface, yellow in colour, and possessing quite a 

 glandular aspect. ^ They have sometimes been designated the lateral prostates. They 

 are composed of aciniform glands, inclosed in a mass of connective tissue and unstriped 

 fibres ; they open into a common central canal which terminates in the vas deferens. 



Urethra. This canal is inflected like the letter S. Its diameter regularly diminishes 

 from its commencement to its termination, which is not provided with a urethral tube, 

 as in Solipeds. Internally it presents : 1, Immediately beyond the neck of the bladder 



