474 



CEPHALOPODA. 



merously met with than the female, as among the numerous speci- 

 mens dissected by him scarcely one fifth were of the former sex. 



The various parts of the male generative apparatus are remark- 

 ably similar both in structure and arrangement to the corresponding 

 portions of the sexual organs of the female. The testicle strikingly 

 resembles the ovary both in its outward form and internal arrange- 

 ment : like that viscus, it consists of a capacious membranous sac 

 (Jig. 217, b) ; and, on opening this, there is found attached to a 

 small portion of its inner surface a large bundle of branched cseca 

 (a), in which no doubt the seminal fluid is elaborated. These 

 strangely disposed seminiferous cseca have apparently no proper 

 excretory ducts ; but the impregnating fluid secreted by them is, as 

 it would seem, poured into the general cavity of the sac, exactly in 

 the same manner as the ova do in the other sex, and, being allowed 

 to escape from this reservoir through a wide orifice (c), it enters 

 the vas deferens. The canal last mentioned (d) is long, slender, 

 and very tortuous, but after many convolutions it enters a wider 

 canal (e), called by 



Cuvier vesicula se- Fi g* 217 - 



minalis, the interior 

 of which is divided 

 by imperfect septa ; 

 and, its texture be- 

 ing apparently mus- 

 cular, this part of 

 the excretory appa- 

 ratus may possibly 

 by its contractions 

 expel the spermatic 

 fluid from the body. 

 On issuing from the 

 seminal vesicle, the 

 semen passes the ex- 

 tremity of an oblong 

 gland (/), which 

 Cuvier denominates 

 the prostate : its 

 structure is compact 

 and granular, and it 

 seems to be destined 

 to furnish some ac- 



