NORMAL HISTOLOGY. 



and other evidences of secretory activity, extend into the mucosa from the 

 bottom of the deeper recesses. Pigment granules are also constant after 

 the advent of sexual maturity. The tunica propria is rich in elastic fibres. 

 The fluid produced within the seminal vesicles is of importance probably not 

 only in diluting the secretion of the testicle and supplying a medium favor- 

 able for the motility of the spermatozoa, but also in completing the volume of 

 fluid favorable for ejaculation (Waldeyer). The spermatic ducts, and not 

 the vesicles, serve as the chief reservoirs for the spermatozoa. 



The blood-vessels supplying the spermatic duct and the seminal 

 vesicle give off twigs that enter the walls and break up into capillary net- 

 works within the muscular and mucous coats. That within the latter occu- 

 pies the superficial part of the tunica propria, immediately beneath the 

 basement membrane. The veins begin within the deeper part of the 

 mucosa and, after piercing the walls of the duct and vesicle, unite into a 



Partition separating adjacent diverticula 

 Pits orn mucous surface 



Epithelium 



Mucous coat 



^~r Circular 

 '. muscle 

 - Longitudinal 

 muscl 



*#5lfe 



Fibrous coat 



FIG. 289. Wall of seminal vesicle in longitudinal section, showing pitting of mucous co&t. X 45- 



superficial network, following the vas as the deferential plexus and surround- 

 ing the vesicle as the seminal plexus. Within the spermatic cord the former 

 communicates with the pampiniform plexus, the component veins of which 

 are distinguished by unusually well marked muscle. 



The lymphatics of the seminal duct and vesicle are numerous and 

 arranged as a deeper and a superficial set. The former arise from lymph- 

 channels within the mucous and muscular coats and join the superficial net- 

 work, outside the dense walls, from which efferent trunks pass to the 

 lymph-nodes. 



The nerves of the duct and vesicle are derived chiefly from the 

 hypogastric sympathetic plexus; they surround the blood-vessels with 

 plexiform meshes from which fibres pass into the muscular tissue where 

 they form the dense plexus myospermaticus. The latter sends fibres to 

 supply the unstriped muscle, while others penetrate the mucous membrane 

 to end mostly within the tunica propria, some fibrils gaining, perhaps, an 

 intraepithelial position. 



