MALE ORGANS OF RODENTS. 



G5i 



the abdomen is easy. The epididymis, after quitting the testis, 

 recedes, and is connected therewith for the rest of its extent by a 

 fold of serous membrane. The prostatic glands are large and 

 ramified, one on each side the muscular part of the urethra, with 

 which they communicate close to the verumontanum: the terminal 

 orifices of the vesicular glands are wider. The levator penis is 

 inserted into an ossicle in the glans. The penial bone is strong in 

 the Capybara : the vesicular glands in that Rodent are long and 

 large, slightly branched : the prostatic glands are short, broad, 

 and thick, consisting of numerous slender ramified caeca. 



In the Agouti and Acuchi (Dasyprocta) the testes, during the 

 rut, lie in the perinaeum, one on each side the retro verted bend of 

 the penis ; the cremaster is a sacciform development of the inferior 

 fibres of the obliquus in- 

 ternus abdominis, which is 

 inverted when the testes re- 

 turn to the abdomen. Adi- 

 pose appendages extend 

 from the spermatic cords. 

 The vasa deferentia, fig. 506, 

 c, c, have usually a tortuous 

 course behind the bladder : 

 they terminate in the ure- 

 thra distinct from the ducts 

 of the vesicular glands, ib. 

 k, k: these bodies, i, i, are 

 long and ramified ; the style, 

 7, m, indicates the urethral 

 end of the duct. The pro- 

 static glands, e, e, are shorter, 

 and consist of a fascicule 

 of slender caeca, which unite 

 and form the short duct 

 through which the style, g, 

 k, passes. The Cowperian 

 glands, ib. o, o, are of a 

 compact oval form, and send their secretion by a short duct, 

 traversed by p, q, into the bulbous part of the urethra. The bulb 

 is compressed by its ' acceleratores : ' the cavernous crura of the 

 penis by the ' erectores : ' the ' levatores penis,' which unbend the 

 organ during erection and compress the ( venae dorsales penis,' 

 rise from the symphysis pubis, and send their tendon along the 

 dorsum to be inserted into the ossicle of the glans. This part 

 is provided with a pair of lateral dentate horny plates, ib. b, b. 



Male organs, Agouti, cxxn' 



