THE MALE REPRODUCTIVE ORGANS. 



THESE include: the sexual glands (the testes}, the spermatic ducts (cpi- 

 didymes and vasa deferential and their appendages (the seminal vesicles}, 

 the copulative organ (the penis}, and certain accessory glands (the pros- 

 tate and the bulbo-urethral glands). At first situated within the abdomen, 

 the testes migrate during the last few weeks of fcetal life through the inguinal 

 canal into the scrotum, gaining the latter usually shortly before birth. In 

 their descent they are accompanied by blood-vessels, lymphatics, nerves and 

 their ducts, which structures, with the supporting and investing tissue, con- 

 stitute the spermatic cord that extends through the abdominal wall to the 

 scrotum. 



THE TESTIS. 



As often employed, the term ' ' testicle ' ' includes two essentially differ- 

 ent parts, the testis, the true sexual gland, and the epididymis, the highly 

 convoluted commencement of the spermatic duct. The testes or testicles 

 proper, the glands producing the seminal elements, are two ellipsoidal bodies 

 obliquely suspended within the scro- 

 tum. Each testis measures about 

 4 cm. in length, 2.5 cm. in breadth 

 and 2 cm. in thickness. With the 

 exception of the posterior border, 

 where the vessels, nerves and ducts 

 enter and emerge, the testis is covered 

 with a serous membrane, the tunica 

 vaginalis. 



Architecture of the Testicle. 

 The framework of the testicle 

 proper includes a stout fibre-elastic 

 capsule, the tunica albuginea, .4-. 6 

 mm. in thickness, that gives form to 

 the organ and protects the enclosed 

 soft glandular tissue.' Along the pos- 

 terior border of the testis the capsule 



Globus major of epididymis 



Vas deferens 



contorti 

 Vas aberrans 



Ductus 

 epididymidis 

 Globus minor 



Septum Tunica albuginea 



FIG. 277. Diagram illustrating architecture of the 

 testicle. 



is greatly thickened and projects for- 

 wards as the mediastinum testis, a 

 wedge-shaped body (2.5 3 cm. long) 

 from which radiate a number of 

 membranous septa that pass to the inner surface of the tunica albuginea. 

 In this way the space enclosed by the capsule is subdivided into pyramidal 

 compartments (Fig. 277), the bases of which lie at the periphery and the 

 apices at the mediastinum. These spaces contain collectively from 150 to 

 200 pyriform masses of glandular tissue, more or less separated from one 

 another, which are the lobules. Each of the latter is made up of from one 

 to three greatly convoluted seminiferous tubules, held together by delicate 

 connective tissue. These tubules, from 25-70 cm. long, are, at least in the rab- 

 bit, arched, not blind, canals connected by both ends with a tubulus rectus. 

 They are seldom branched and very tortuous (tubuli contorti) until they con- 



227 



