302 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [aNNO 1668. 



Testis Examinatus. iV" 42, p. 843. 



This is the title of a printed page, formeriy (viz. Anno l658) at Florence, 

 by Vadlius Dathirius Bonglarus, and now by reason of the great scarcity of the 

 original, inserted here. 



There having been at this period of time considerable dissensions among 

 anatomists, concerning the structure of the testicles; some asserting them to 

 be glandular, others that they were composed of a pulpy or parenchymatous 

 mass, &c. ; this author undertakes to settle this controversy, by demonstrating, 

 from a careful examination of the testicles, that they are made up of a congeries 

 of minute vessels.* These are represented in two figures, which accompany 

 these observations, one of the figures exhibiting these vessels as they appear in 

 the human testicle, the other exhibiting the appearances thereof in the testicle of 

 a boar, fig. 3 and 4, pi. 8. A A, Both testicles cut through the middle. B B, The 

 tunica albuginea. C, The insertion of the vasa praeparantia into the tunica al- 

 buginea. D D, The ductus Highmorianus, running through the middle of the 

 testicle, clearly seen in the boar, but not so in the human subject. Perhaps the 

 linea fibrosa of Riolan ? E E E E, The vasa praeparantia passing through the 

 tunica albuginea, and joined to the duct by 'a semicircular communication. 

 FFFF, The substance of the human testicle, not glandular but vascular, in 

 such manner, that the whole body of the testis is nothing but a congeries of ves- 

 sels. In the boar there intervenes between the vasa testicularia **** a thin strip 

 of flesh, (a thin partition of cellular membrane) f f f f. 



G G, Small tubes arising from the duct, at the place where it passes from the 

 tunica albuginea into the caput testis. 



H H, The beginning of the epididymis, which is not glandular, (as Highmore 

 supposes) but (as Riolan asserts) is composed of a congeries of vessels. Hence 

 we see that the epididymis arises from the small tubes above mentioned, and these 

 tubes from the duct ; that the semen is first secreted in the vasa testicularia com- 

 posing the body of the testis ; that it next distils (is conveyed) from the vasa 

 testicularia into the duct ; and that it afterwards passes from the duct through 

 the small tubes into the epididymis, in the convolutions of which it undergoes 

 its ultimate elaboration. 



1 1, The other portion of the epididymis in like manner evidently vascular ; so 



* See the account of De Graaf 's and Van Home's treatises on the male organs of generation at 

 pp. 241 and 242 of tlus Abridgement. Also Dr. Clarck's letter, p. 249 — 250, 



