578 



ANATOMY OF VERTEBRATES. 



386 



continued forward to the Wolffian ligament, far in advance of 

 the testes, contracting to a point : in its backward course, between 



the testis and remnant of the Wolffian 

 gland, it receives a few short transverse 

 ducts therefrom, which come from small 

 masses of convoluted tubes, still pervious 

 to mercurial injection in the male dissected 

 by Dr. J. Van der Hoeven : continuing its 

 descent, the longitudinal duct gradually 

 expands, describing convolutions, and re- 

 ceiving in its course along the outer side 

 of the kidneys the excretory ducts, two or 

 three in number, of those glands. Each 



Testis of Prog, cclxx. % # ' » 



urino-seminal canal expands into a simple 

 oblong reservoir, with thickened glandular coats, at the ter- 

 mination of the rectum, and communicates with the cloaca 

 by a papilliform orifice, a little in advance of the blind end of 



the reservoir. The slender elongated 

 remnants of the Wolffian glands are direct 

 continuations from the fore part of the 

 kidneys. 



In the Newt ( Triton tamiatus) from four 

 to five efferent tubes, fig. 387, c, c, quit 

 each of the two chief divisions of the testis, 

 ib. a, and terminate in the common longi- 

 tudinal canal, ib. d, which extends forward 

 to the Wolffian ligament, and backward to 

 the anterior end of the kidney, ib. e : in this 

 course it sends off about ten short trans- 

 verse branches, which, after dilating and 

 convoluting, ib. i, severally terminate in 

 the beginning and fore part of the urino- 

 seminal canal, ib. f. The small dilatation 

 and larger mass of convolutions on each of 

 the transverse branches of the longitudinal 

 duct are retentions of modified parts of the 

 Wolffian or primordial urogenital gland. The 

 urino-seminal duct, f, forms many close 

 coils, like an epididymis, as it approaches 

 the kidney : it receives directly one or two uriniferous tubes, ib. I, 

 and communicates, near its termination, with the orifices of a 

 series of modified ureters, ib. g, which receive the rest of 



Male organs, Newt. Triton 

 tmniatus. cccxxn. 



