690 



MAMMALIA. 



(792.) The skin of all quadrupeds contains innumerable se- 

 cerning follicles, whereby lubricating fluids are continually furnish- 

 ed for the purpose of maintaining the surface in a moist or supple 

 condition ; but not unfrequently these glandular follicles are ag- 

 gregated together in considerable numbers, so as to form secreting 

 pouches. In many species of Stags and Antelopes, for example, 

 large pouches of this description are found below the margin of the 

 orbit, that furnish a secretion vulgarly regarded as the Stag's 

 " tears." In most instances some of the cutaneous glands secrete a 

 highly odorous material, especially in the vicinity of the parts of 

 generation ; and their secretion being most abundant during the 

 rutting season, it is not without reason that these organs are 

 looked upon as destined to attract the sexes, and perhaps to stimu- 

 late the sexual passions. The preputial glands, so called because 

 they furnish an odoriferous fluid that lubricates the prepuce and 

 glans of the penis in the male, and of the clitoris in the female, are 

 of this kind.* For the most part, these are simple sebaceous folli- 

 cles contained in the thickness of the prepuce ; but occasionally 

 they are replaced by true conglomerate glands, formed of lobes and 

 lobules, and having but a single excretory duct, that opens upon 



Fig. 319. 



the sides of the 

 glans penis or 

 clitoridis be- 

 neath the pre- 

 puce. Many 

 of the Roden- 

 tia are furnish- 

 ed with glands 

 of this descrip- 

 tion, and they 

 are situated on 

 each side of 

 the penis, im- 

 mediately be- 

 neath the skin 

 that covers the 

 pubic region. 



(793.) It is 

 with the pre- 

 putial glands that we must notice the still more elaborately de- 



* Cuv. Lemons d'Anat. Comp. torn. v. p. 252 et seq. 



