SEMINAL VESICLES AXD EJACULATORY DUCTS. 973 



manner for one or two inches amongst the vessels of the spermatic cord, 

 where it ends by a closed extremity. Its length, when it is unravelled, 

 ranges from one inch and a half to fourteen inches ; and its breadth increases 

 towards its blind extremity. Sometimes this diverticulum is branched, 

 and occasionally there are two or more such aberrant ducts. Its structure 

 appears to be similar to that of the vas deferens. Its origin is probably 

 connected with the Wolffian body of the foetus, but the exact mode of its 

 formation and its office are unknown. Luschka states that occasionally it 

 does not communicate with the canal of the epididymis, but appears to be a 

 simple serous cyst. 



Organ of Giraldes. This is a minute structure situated in the front of 

 the cord, and in contact with the caput epididymis. It consists usually of 

 several small irregular masses containing convoluted tubules lined with 

 squamous epithelium, and is scarcely to be recognised until the surrounding 

 connective tissue has been rendered transparent by reagents. Its tubules 

 appear to be persistent elements of the Wolffian body. (Giraldes, in Bulletin 

 de la Soc. Anat. de Paris, 1857, and in Journal de la Physiologie, 1861.) 



THE SEMINAL VESICLES AND EJACULATORY DUCTS. 



The vesiculce. seminales are two membranous receptacles, situated, one on 

 each side, upon the base of the bladder, between it and the rectum. When 

 distended, they form two long-shaped sacculated bodies, somewhat flattened 

 above, where they are firmly attached to the bladder, but convex below ; 

 they are widened behind and narrow in front. Their length is usually about 

 two inches and a half, and their greatest breadth from four to six lines ; but 

 they vary in size in different individuals, and also on opposite sides of the 

 same subject. 



Their posterior obtuse 

 extremities are separated 

 widely from each other, but 

 anteriorly they converge so 

 as to approach the two << 



vasa defereutia, which run 



Fig. 680. DISSECTION OF THE Jg 

 BASE OP THE BLADDER AND JH 

 PROSTATE GLAND, SHOWING THE 

 VESICULA: SEMINALES AND VASA 

 DEFERENTIA (from Haller). 



a', lower surface of the bladder 

 at the place of reflection of the 

 peritoneum ; 6, the part ahove 

 covered by the peritoneum ; i, 

 left vas deferens, ending in e, 

 the ejaculatory duct ; s, left 

 vesicula seminalis joining the 

 same duct ; s, s, tbe right vas 

 deferens and right vesicula semi- 

 nalis, which has been unravelled ; 

 p, under side of the prostate 

 gland ; m, part of the urethra ; 

 u, M, tbe ureters, the right one 

 turned aside. 



forwards to the prostate between them. The small triangular portion 

 of the base of the bladder, which is marked off by the two vesiculse semi- 



