MALE ORGANS OF GENERATION 



775 



more or less as the last vestige of a process so slow in arriving at its 

 final term. Nevertheless, there is nothing absolute in the retrograde 

 progress of this phenomenon. I have seen women, dead at the sixth 

 and even the eighth month of pregnancy, present corpora lutea as volu- 

 minous as others at the fourth month" (Coste, 1849). 



.B.C. 



L.C, 



C.E 



Fig. 209. Portion of an ovary, showing a corpus luteum of pregnancy (Williams). 

 B. C, blood-clot ; C, F, C, F, corpus petrosum ; F, F, F, Graafian follicles ; L, C, folds of corpus 



luteum. 



MALE ORGANS OF GENERATION 



The chief physiological interest attached to the anatomy of the male 

 organs of generation relates to the testicles, which are the organs in 

 which the male element of generation is developed. As regards the 

 penis, it will be necessary to do little more than describe the mechanism 

 of erection and of the ejaculation of semen. 



The Testicles. The testicles are two symmetrical organs, situated, 

 during a certain period of intra-uterine life, in the abdominal cavity, but 

 finally descending into the scrotum. Immediately beneath the skin of 

 the scrotum, is a loose, reddish, contractile tissue, called the dartos, 

 which forms two distinct sacs, one enveloping either testicle, the inner 

 portion of these sacs fusing in the median line, to form a. septum. 

 Within these two sacs the coverings of each testicle are distinct. These 

 organs are suspended in the scrotum by the spermatic cords, the left 



