MALE ORGANS OF REPTILES. 



579 



the urine as well as the semen. Each uriniferous duct dilates 

 into a long reservoir, describing a curve external to the kidney, 

 the first or anterior being the longest, the rest successively shorter : 

 they are connected together, eight to ten in number, so as to 

 form, in appearance, a flattened semi-oval * vesicula seminalis,' and 

 terminate by a short wide canal, ib. ?n, common to them and the 

 vas deferens, in the back part of the cloaca. 



In the Frog about six transverse efferent ducts, fig. 385, h, 

 enter the longitudinal one, g, extending along the inner (mesial) 

 side of the kidney, which is reflected round the fore end of that 

 gland to form the beginning of the urino-seminal canal, ib. i, 

 which courses along the outer (lateral) side of the kidney. This 

 canal does not describe convolutions : it enlarges as it progressively 

 receives the ureters, and suddenly expands beyond the kidney 

 into a semi-oval c vesicula seminalis,' ib. k, the outer half of which 

 has folliculo-glandular walls, the inner half being smooth and 

 with the character of a reservoir. A short duct conveys the 

 contents of the vesicle to the back of the cloaca, ib. b ; at the 

 fore part is the orifice, c, of the allantoid bladder, e. 



No Batrachian has the intromittent organ, or a vas deferens 

 distinct from an ureter: a stage in the substitution of kidneys 

 for Wolffian bodies is hereby obviously indicated. 



§ 109. Male Organs of Reptiles. — In the scaled Reptiles the 

 conduits from the kidney and the 

 testes are distinct to the cloaca, and 

 terminate there on separate papilla?. 

 The testes, fig. 389, b, are compara- 

 tively small and compact : they are 

 always abdominal, with a complete 

 investment of peritoneum, fre- 

 quently coloured by pigment-cells. 

 They have a strong albugineal 

 tunic, and consist of blind semini- 

 ferous tubes, fig. 388, much longer 

 and more slender than in Batra- 

 chians, and packed up in close 

 convolute folds, in ill-defined loculi 

 of the gland. From these tubes a 

 variable number of efferent canals 

 proceed, which are inclosed in a prolongation of the tunics of the 

 testis for a brief course, and then unite into a vas deferens. 



In the Ophidia the testes, fig. 357, h>h, are of a more elongate 



P P 2 



388 



Tubuli seminiferi ; testis of Lizard. 



