1 86 Anatomy Applied to Medicine and Surgery. 



mode of production of its passage through the abdom- 

 inal parietes is dependent on the fact that the testicle, in 

 the early months of foetal life, lay in the lumbar region. 

 From this point it became shifted to the internal ring, 

 opposite which it is found at the sixth month, and, which 

 it enters at the seventh month ; then, down the canal to the 

 . scrotum, which it enters about the end of the eighth month. 

 Previous to this, i.e., before the testicle has reached the in- 

 ternal ring, a process of peritoneum the processus vagin- 

 alis had descended into the scrotum, pushing before it a 

 part of the internal oblique (cremaster muscle) and a portion 

 of the external obliqu (intercolumnar fascia). Attached 

 to the back of the testicle, as it rested in the lumbar region 

 in the early months of foetal life, was a rounded cord, the 

 gubernaculum testis. This arose, below, from the bottom 

 of the scrotum, from the pubes and from the tissues in the 

 neighborhood of the middle of poupart's ligament. As 

 the body grew, the testicle was pulled down towards these 

 parts by the gubernaculum, since the latter does not keep 

 pace in growth with the other structures, and hence, the 

 testicle was directed first towards the middle of .Poupart's 

 ligament, then towards the pubes, and, lastly, into the 

 scrotum. The testicle was originally surrounded by the 

 peritoneum on all sides, except where it was attached to 

 the posterior abdominal wall, and, to this adherent por- 

 tion, the gubernaculum testis and the vas deferens are 

 attached. Since the projection of the peritoneum, referred 

 to above, forced the structures, above mentioned, in front 

 of it, and, since the testicle has been drawn down behind 

 this projection it follows that the testicle, when it arrives 

 at the scrotum, will have in front of it the same structures, 

 viz.: (l)The integument; (2) the superficial tissue; (3) 

 the intercolumnar fascia; (4) the cremaster fascia; (5) 

 the fascia propria,, representing the combined injundibuli- 



