▼OL. XLVI.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. 11 



passages Prof. H. had thrice succeeded in filling with quicksilver, at the date 

 of this memoir (1750). 



A single vessel (for he had not seen more than one) goes straight from the 

 middle of the epididymis, and ascends with the vessels of the testis. Professor 

 H. could not trace this vessel to its termination, but he doubts not that it be- 

 longs to the lymphatic vessels, which he had often seen in the spermatic cord of 

 the human subject. These are the exceedingly minute vessels in the abdomen 

 (for though Prof H. had hitherto seen but one, he would not deny there might 

 be more) which, in the hare, Ruysch (Catal. Mus. p. 152) injected by the vas 

 deferens. Professor H. thinks it highly probable that this vessel (or vessels) may 

 ser\e for absorbing the more fluid part of the semen, and rendering it thicker. 



The other passage, by which the semen is conveyed to the vesiculae seminales, 

 is easily traced. By injecting this passage with quicksilver. Prof H. observed 

 some things which deserve to be mentioned. After slightly noticing that the ductus 

 deferens is continued straight into the urethra, and that the excretory duct of the 

 vesicula seminalis is inserted into it at a very acute angle, and that notwithstanding 

 the excretory duct is smaller than the urethral duct, yet liquors injected into the 

 ductus deferens easily pass into the vesicula ; he proceeds to what he principally 

 wishes to point out, viz. that each vesicula seminalis is a small intestine (intesti- 

 nulum), into which are inserted many blind appendages (csecee appendices). This 

 is clearly seen when the vesicula is filled with quicksilver or wax, and afterwards 

 dissected, carefully removing the portions of cellular membrane, by means of 

 which both the principal intestinulum and blind appendages are held together. 

 In several preparations thus conducted. Prof. H. found that the appendices varied 

 considerably in length, simplicity, direction, and diameter ; but in all instances 

 he found the principal intestinulum of the vesicula to terminate in a thick, ob- 

 tuse, blind cone. Into this intestinulum are inserted 8 or 10 appendices, the 

 first of which are commonly, but not constantly, branched ; the last are rather 

 simple. Something similar was observed by Leal Lealis, and Henricus Bassius, 

 Obs. Anat. Chir. Dec. 1, n. V. T. 2 ff ; but both these authors have made the 

 appendices too small, and Bassius moreover has added an anulus, which Prof. 

 H. asserts to be a plica, and not a true circle. He adds, that these appendices 

 are so large and so complex, that it is difficult to determine which is the trunk, 

 and which the appendix. 



Fig. 1, pi. 13, represents the testicle filled with quicksilver; a the ductus de- 

 ferens ; b the lower part where it begins to ascend under the name of epididymis ; 

 c the whole epididymis injected, composed of a single serpentine vessel ; d the 

 head of the epididymis ; eeeee so many coni vasculosi, of which the head of the 

 epididymis is composed : f f the vascula efFerentia arising from the cones. They 



c a 



