120 



THE WOLFFIAN DUCT AND BODY. 



When completely formed, the Wolffian bodies are seen on opening the abdomen 

 of the embryo as long prominent vascular organs projecting into the peritoneal 

 cavity on either side of the intestine, and showing in section numerous Malpighian 

 corpuscles and uriniferous tubules variously cut (fig. 143). 



Soon after having attained its complete condition of development, the Wolffian 

 body begins to undergo atrophic changes. These proceed much further in the 



E. 



Fig. 143. TRANSVERSE SECTION OF THE 



WOLFFIAN BODY OF THE CHICK ON THE 



FOURTH DAY. (Waldeyer. ) 



m, mesentery ; L, body wall ; a', thickened 

 epithelium from which the involution of the 

 anterior part of the Mullerian duct z, is 

 taking place ; a, thickened germinal epithe- 

 lium in which are seen primitive ova, o ; 

 , modified mesoblast which will form the 

 stroma of the ovary ; WK, tubules of Wolffian 

 body variously cut ; y, Wolffian duct. Two 

 glomeruli are shown in the Wolffian body. 



female sex than in the male, but the 

 tubules of the organ do not entirely 

 disappear in either sex. In the 

 female they form the rudimentary 

 organ which is known as the par- 

 ovarium (epoophoron of Waldeyer), 

 while the main tube of that struc- 

 ture represents a remnant of the 

 Wolffian duct. But in many animals, 

 e.g., the sow, the Wolffian duct re- 

 mains as the duct of Gartner, a 

 strong, slightly undulated tube, which is traceable, at first free in the broad ligament 

 of the uterus, and lower down becoming incorporated with the wall of the uterus 

 and vagina, upon which last it becomes lost. Traces of this tube can sometimes be 

 seen in sections across the body or cervix of the adult human uterus, and even lying 

 in the Avail of the vagina. 



In the male the Wolffian duct forms the tube of the epididymis, the vas deferens, 

 and the ejaculatory duct ; the seminal vesicle being formed as a diverticulum from 

 its lower part. The coni vasculosi and tubuli efferentes are in all probability formed 

 by the persistence of some of the tubules of the Wolffian body. The Malpighian 

 corpuscles of these tubules have long disappeared, but previous to their disappearance 

 solid columns of epithelial cells, afterwards becoming tubules, grow from the walls of 

 those corpuscles towards the germinal epithelium (fig. 153), where, in the male, they 

 become continuous with and enclose cells derived from that epithelium (which 

 subsequently form the epithelium of the seminiferous tubes), and thus produce the 

 walls of the seminiferous tubules and the rete testis. In the female sex there is also 

 a growth of solid cellular columns towards the germinal epithelium, but no connec- 

 tion becomes established between them, and the columns do not become tubular. 

 The organ of Giraldes and the vasa aberrantia of Haller are probably the remains 

 of one or more Wolffian tubules. 



Suprarenal capsules. These organs are intimately connected in their development with 

 the Wolffian bodies. According 1 to the observations of Weldon some of the cellular columns 

 which grow from the Malpighian corpuscles of the upper part of the Wolffian body towards 

 the germinal epithelium give offsets which pass upwards towards the inferior vena cava, and 

 there become developed into the cortical substance of the suprarenal capsules. (Mihalkovics, 

 on the other hand, states that the strands of cells which grow from the upper part of the 



